The Will of the Stars
by SparkleAnne
Summary: When one is hunted by the Dark Side, and a showdown between Light and Dark ensues, sometimes Light doesn't always Win... Please R&R! (STORY COMPLETED)
1. Born of Fire

Disclaimer:  I don't own any of the Star Wars characters from any of Lucas's hit movies.  I do, however, own the characters that I have invented for this story.

This story is for a friend who is a big Star Wars fan.  You know who you are.  God bless!

The Will of the Stars 

Blaster-bolt fire and missile explosions had blackened the terrain around the palace.  Palace guards marched to and fro in chaos, attempting to secure the building.  People ran around the palace, scattering every which way.  Amid the confusion, no one seemed to notice a ten-year old girl wandering about in her pajamas on her own while her mother was who-knows-where, screaming for the child.

Evadne Darren headed towards the sound of her name as it reverberated off the whitewashed walls of the interior of the palace.  As she rounded a corner, she caught sight of her five-year-old sister.  She quickly reached forward and grabbed her sister's hand, and both girls ran towards the sound of their mother's voice.

"Evie, I'm scared.  What's happening?"

"I don't know Aiddie," Evadne told Aidia as they continued to run.

      "I want Mommy."  Aidia started to cry.  Both girls rounded another corner and caught sight of their mother and father surrounded by a squadron of white-armored storm troopers.  Evadne froze in place and pulled Aidia back, not liking the scene that was unfolding forty-five feet in front of them.  "Evadne, what's wrong?"

      "Shh!"  Evadne side-stepped into a corridor and pulled Aidia in after her.  She cautiously peered at the group that had surrounded her parents.  She saw her father pull a cylinder-shaped item from a clip on his belt.  The storm troopers stepped back as a thin red blade of light shot out of the ignited lightsaber.  Evadne gasped as she watched her father raise the lightsaber high, turn towards her mother, and plunge the blade of light into her mother's chest.

      Aidia screamed.  Evadne quickly moved to clamp her hand over her sister's mouth.  The stench of singed flesh assaulted their noses.  Both girls watched in horror as their father stepped forward from the squadron of storm troopers.  "Find those girls!"  Their father ordered.  Evadne took no time to drag Aidia along with her as she turned and ran down the closest corridor.  Both girls' hearts threatened to beat out of their chests as they ran, not bothering to stop to catch their breaths.  They could hear the clattering of the storm troopers' shoes hitting the marble floor as they followed the girls in pursuit.  This pressed both girls to run faster, and to not look back to see how close the storm troopers were.

      A man stepped in front of the girls as they reached the end of the corridor, and they barreled into him, not bothering to slow down.  "Come with me Princess Evadne," he said as he took hold of Evadne's shoulders.  Another man stepped forward and grabbed Aidia the same way.  The girls at first were shocked, but then went willingly with the palace guards as they led them to the docking bay.  Evadne listened as the two men discussed what was going to happen.

      "The imperials have taken control of the airspace and have set up a blockade that surrounds Bespin.  Before the imperials were able to jam the frequency, we set up a rendezvous with another ship that will help with the escort.  We cannot afford to put both girls on the same ship to Kashyyyk, because if something happens, we may lose both of them.  Since they are the only remaining members of the royal family, we can't afford to let that happen."  One guard said.

      "Once we rendezvous with the Victory, I will accompany Princess Aidia aboard, and will take her to the safe haven on Kashyyyk.  You stay aboard the Gambit, and we'll rendezvous at Kashyyyk after we are separated."  The other guard said.

      "The imperial guards have been alerted to keep watch for you, Princesses.  We need to get both of you out of here."  As they reached the Gambit, a twenty man squadron of storm troopers appeared at the doorway from which they had just come.  The palace guards pushed Evadne and Aidia up the ramp of the Gambit, and then raised it once inside.  "I am going to put the ship on autopilot and man the guns until we are clear of Bespin's airspace.  Both of you girls sit down and don't touch anything."

      Both girls took seats and strapped themselves in.  The ship rose into the air as a barrage of blaster bolts hit the bottom hull of the ship.  The ship shot straight up into the air, and then zoomed out into space.  Evadne unfastened her safety strap and went to the viewport to see what was going on.  The ship rocked violently as something struck its right side.  Several lights started blinking and an alarm sounded.  "Princess, enable the deflector shields."

      Evadne looked helplessly at the console.  She didn't know what to do.  "What button is that?" She called out.

      "The flashing blue one."  The other guard came up behind Evadne and hit the button.  Evadne then ran over to the guard at the guns.

      "Let me shoot."  Evadne said.  Another shot rocked the ship and Evadne fell to the floor.

      "You buckle yourself into the copilot's chair and sit there silently until we are clear of this mess, Princess.  Let us worry about the situation.  You just stay out of our way."  Evadne sighed and then went back to the cockpit, defeated.  The other guard began pushing a series of buttons on the console.  Evadne looked out the viewport and watched as the clouds of Bespin gave way to the enveloping blackness of space.  "Stay put, both of you, until we are safely in hyperspace.  The ship will rock a little, then you'll see white star lines."  The guard explained.  The princesses had never left Bespin in their lives, and they wondered what would be in store for them, as they were the only remaining members of the royal family of Bespin.  Bespin had been ruled by a matriarchy, and their father was not really part of the royal family because he had married into it and royalty was not in his blood.

      "You can never hazard going back to Bespin as long as your father is alive.  You and Princess Aidia will be safe with the Wookies on Kashyyyk until the Empire has forgotten about your existence.  The Wookies will take care of your needs, and you'll have a nanny droid for your studies.  When it is safe, we'll return for both you and your sister.  Your father is a powerful Sith and both of you need to be kept away from him.  Your mother did her best to protect you from him, but now she's dead."

      Evadne felt sick to her stomach.  Suddenly she didn't want to listen to the palace guard talk any more.  She closed her eyes and tried to imagine that she was elsewhere.  The ship lurched forward as it began its jump into hyperspace.  The palace guard had set the coordinates for the place where they'd rendezvous with the Victory.  Suddenly alarms began to wail.  As Evadne re-opened her eyes, she saw the white starlines of hyperspace.  Her eyes widened in amazement.  They had made it through the blockade, but Evadne couldn't help but to feel that something else was wrong.  They had gotten away too easily…

      When the ship came out of hyperspace and met up with the Victory, it became more apparent that they had been followed.  The Gambit quickly pulled up beside the Victory and Aidia was lead aboard the Victory while Evadne stayed aboard the Gambit.  Both ships were barraged with fire from ion cannons.  The sirens on the Gambit wailed out in protest as the front deflector shield was lost.  Evadne watched out the window as the Victory disappeared into hyperspace again.

      "Princess, man the guns while I put all deflector power onto our rear shields.  We aren't going to make it to Kashyyyk.  We've got to head to the nearest planet."  The guard said.

      "Where's that?"

      "The closest planet is Corellia."  The guard said…  Then everything went black…


	2. The Empress's Star

The first thing that Evadne heard was the pattering of rain. Evadne opened her eyes and looked around herself.  There was no sign of the ship, or of the palace guard.  Evadne noticed that she was lying in a cot, surrounded by many blankets and pillows.  She tried to get up, but found that it hurt to move.  There was a lady with a wet cloth sitting in a chair next to the cot.  When the lady noticed that Evadne had opened her eyes, she leaned in closer over her face.

      "My child.  You were in a terrible crash.  Your ship is gone.  You were lucky to make it out in one piece."  The lady said.  Some of the lady's brown hair swept over Evadne's face as she talked.  "Be still, child.  I assume that your whole body aches, and will probably do so for a few days.  Just get all of the rest that you can."  The lady said.  "By the way, my name is Mim Darkstarr, and this is my hut."

      "What happened to the person who was with me?"  Evadne asked.  "Where is he?"

      "There was no one else that survived the crash."  Mim said.  "My son Rhannon will take care of you while I consult the council."  Mim then turned towards the door of the hut and handed the wet cloth to a blond-haired boy who was standing at the door of the hut.  "Rhannon, make sure that she doesn't try to get up, and get her whatever she wants."  Mim then turned back to Evadne.  "What is your name?  And where were you bound?"  

      "My name is Evadne Darren.  I was bound for Kashyyyk."  Evadne said.

      "You bear the Empress's Star.  You must be of the Royal Family of Bespin."  Mim said.  She reached out to touch the star-shaped birthmark on Evadne's left cheek.  "You are the daughter of a powerful Sith."  Evadne was surprised.  How was it that Mim knew so much about her?  Evadne's hand reached up to her star-shaped birthmark.  She had never thought much about it.  Her mother had had one, her sister had one, and so did she.  It was normal to her, so she didn't understand the fuss that Mim was making over it.  "I'll be back."  Mim said as she walked out of the hut, leaving Evadne alone with Rhannon.

      "You seem to be Force sensitive.  Have you had any training to be a Jedi?"  Rhannon asked Evadne.  Evadne looked at him helplessly.  She had no clue what he was talking about.  "Welcome to Master Darkstarr's Jedi Village."

      "Master Darkstarr?"  Evadne questioned.

      "Yes, my mother, Mim, is a Jedi Master, and she has founded this village for Force sensitive people such as yourself and everyone else in this village to learn the ways of the Force.

      "I don't want to stay.  I need to find my sister, and get to Kashyyyk."

      "Do you have the money to buy your own ship, or hire someone to take you off of Corellia?  It's very expensive.  Plus, it's pretty bad outside the village.  There are smugglers, gamblers, and all around dirty folk here.  I don't think that you'd survive one minute in their company."  Fifteen-year-old Rhannon said.


	3. Trouble

Twenty-five-year-old Evadne used the Force to brush a strand of her red hair out of her eyes as she concentrated on the training droid that hovered a few feet in front of her.  She raised her lightsaber in an attempt to strike at the droid, and managed to sever off one of its mechanical arms.  Her brows furrowed in concentration.  She was getting mad at it.  It seemed to strike her more times today than it had ever done in her fifteen years of training.

      "Jedi never strike in anger."  Mim reminded Evadne.  Evadne looked at her in frustration.  "Why don't you take a break, and we can practice one-on-one parries when you are refreshed.  All of this worry and stress is not good for your body, let alone that of the baby you carry."  Mim reached out her hand and called Evadne's lightsaber to herself.  "I haven't seen Rhannon around.  Why don't you see where he is?"  Mim went to her hut to rest.

      Evadne closed her eyes for a minute.  She could feel the presence of the infant that she carried in the Force.  This child would definitely be Force sensitive.  Suddenly she felt cold hands on her shoulders, and opened her eyes, ready to strike whomever it was.  She turned to see Rhannon standing beside her.  "Don't DO that!  I was almost about to hurt you."  Evadne said.  She let Rhannon take her hand and lead her over to a near-by bench.  

      "I am just starting to perfect cloaking myself in the Force.  See, we've been married for three years, and you couldn't even sense me as I snuck up on you."  Rhannon laughed.  He paused.  "You're thinking about Aidia aren't you?"

      Tears came to Evadne's eyes.  "I don't even know if she is alive.  I cannot feel her in the Force."  Evadne sunk into the bench beside Rhannon.  "It's horrible.  I can't even remember where we were supposed to meet."  Evadne stated.  "And being pregnant is not helping any.  My emotions are on a rampage.  I struck out in anger at the training droid today.  I haven't done that since I was ten."  Evadne said.

      "I know how much that this means to you, Evie.  That's why I bought a ship for us."  Rhannon said.  "I will tell mother that we want to try to locate your sister.  The ship is parked at docking bay 4000."

      Evadne stared at him.  "We can't afford a ship!  You've got to be kidding me?  With a baby on the way?"  Evadne put her chin in her cupped hands.  "You need to return it."

      "I got it for us…" Rhannon started, but Evadne cut him off.

      "Return it!"  Evadne stood up and ran from the bench.  She had to have time away from everything to think.  She reached the boundaries of the Jedi Village, and kept walking until she reached the next city.  She entered one of the bars and took a seat in one of the empty booths.  She had to think things out.  She had to try to make sense of her life, and being at the Village wasn't helping any.

      Since she had learned that she was pregnant, she had been having strange dreams.  She felt as if there was someone that she was supposed to seek, but she kept waking up before she could figure out who it was.  These dreams really bothered her, because they brought up nearly forgotten memories of the past.  They made her long to find her sister and start to put together the shattered pieces of her life.  She sighed heavily as a waitress walked up to her booth.

      "What will you have Miss?"  The waitress asked.

      "I'll take a Correllian Ale."  Evadne said, then remembering that drinking was bad for the baby, she re-thought her choice.  "Scratch that.  Make it a glass of juice."  She smiled as the waitress left to fill the order.  Evadne turned her attention towards the doorway.  Suddenly she didn't feel so well.  A squadron of storm troopers came into the bar…


	4. Consumed in Flame

      Evadne held her breath and pulled the hood of her cape over her head.  She hoped that she wouldn't draw any attention to herself, but as she did so, she noticed that it had quite the opposite effect.  The waitress came over to her and asked her what was wrong.

      "There is nothing wrong.  You are going to put a lid on my juice so that I can take it home with me."  Evadne told the waitress.  At first the waitress seemed to resist Evadne's suggestion, but when Evadne stood up and made like she was going to leave, the waitress hurried off to do what Evadne wished.  Evadne closed her eyes and used a Jedi soothing technique to calm herself.  She had to think about how she was going to get past the imperials.  She simply got up and walked out of the bar, hoping that no one would notice her.  As she walked, she kept her head down hoping that the storm troopers would interpret this as a sign of respect and not that she was trying to get away from them.  

As she approached the Village, she saw smoke billowing from the huts.  She ran towards the village as fast as she could, until she had the idea that maybe they would suspect something of her if she ran towards it so fast, so she slowed down and pretended just to be a curious by-passer.  There were bodies scattered everywhere, and not one of the huts remained intact.  She had to fight down the sense of fear and rage that bubbled up inside her.  Why had they killed the only family that she had known for the majority of her life?  She visited her and her husband's hut first, and had to turn her back to it as she caught a sickening glimpse of Rhannon's burnt corpse.  His lightsaber lay beside his body, as if he hadn't even had time to call it into his hands before he died.  Her stomach knotted and turned.  She saw the metal key that was probably to the new ship, dangling from his fingers.  She pocketed the key.  It saddened her that she hadn't even been able to say goodbye to him.  She had wandered off and left him, and that's the last image of her that he would ever have.  It was the image that would be forever burnt into his mind.  She frowned and wiped away some tears.  

She then wandered over to Mim's hut, and saw pretty much the same thing.  Mim's body was on the cot that she had been sleeping in when whatever it was that burnt the place struck.  Had nobody sensed what was about to happen?  Evadne turned away, with tears in her eyes.  This had to be the work of a Master of the dark side…  Someone who could cloak his or herself so that no one would sense him or her coming.  Suddenly the thought occurred to Evadne that whoever it was might still be around.  As she turned to leave, she saw her lightsaber lying on the ground.  It appeared to be undamaged.  She quickly called it to herself and clipped it to her belt under her cape, and walked towards docking bay 4000.  There was nothing here that would make her stay any more.


	5. Mission

As she reached the docking bay, she noted that there was only a few ships there.  She thought it odd for a busy Correllian day.  She approached the ship and looked at it from several different angles.  It was a round-hulled ship, a YT-1300 Light Freighter, like the Millennium Falcon, but smaller.   She lowered the ramp and went inside the ship.  As she looked around, she saw traces that her husband had indeed been aboard the ship.  She blinked back tears, and sighed as she started the power-up sequence on the ship.  She decided that she'd put the ship into hyperspace and then she'd take a nap…  

***************************************

Evadne blinked her eyes as she woke up from yet another strange dream. A name echoed in her mind as her head pounded with a headache.... LUKE SKYWALKER.... Her pulse slowly went back to normal and she sat up. She was in search of her identity. Yeah she knew already that there was something more...but she didn't quite know what else there was. 

FLASHBACK

She felt scared as they loaded her and her sister into a ship and took them away from their homeland of Bespin.... She felt so sad that she had not been able to say goodbye to her mother before she died. She looked at her sister Aidia. Then someone took Aidia away. Evadne found out later that Aidia had been sent to another planet on a transfer ship.... It was for their own protection...she was told... The man who stayed with her told her that later in life evil people would seek both her and her sister out and try to kill them since they were the only members of the ruling house of Bespin that were left.... The ship started to have problems. Evadne held on tight as the ship careened towards the nearest planet that it could reach...Corellia.   Then everything went black...    

END FLASHBACK   


	6. Yavin 4 and the Jedi Academy

Evie had set out for the planet Yavin 4 three days ago. Something in the force had told her that this person, Luke Skywalker, had something that was hers from her life before she crashed on Corellia. Before she trained in the force with a Jedi master who felt her strength in the force.... She wanted to go back to way things were before she crashed.... before being trained as a Jedi... She didn't care about being a Jedi.... She just wanted to find out who she was...   The ship reached orbit around Yavin 4 and she waited for clearance to land....

After waiting several hours and not contacting anyone on the planet, Evadne decided to land her ship on the planet without authorization. When the ship broke through the clouds Evadne could see many people and vehicles on the ground. It seemed as if they were fighting someone or something....   She touched down in the middle of the forest so as to not seriously distract those who were fighting. Several people looked up at her ship and watched her land but they were too busy to go over to see what she wanted. She could tell that she was going to have a hard time finding this Luke guy. She stepped outside her ship and covered it with a green material so that it would blend in with its surroundings.   After doing that, she set out to find Luke. Her mind clouded with all of the different sounds and feelings and perceptions that she was picking up from all of the other people. She tried to find Luke's thoughts among them but found that she couldn't. Great...she thought.... I should have known...Jedi Masters usually block their emotions and such from prying strangers. This task of finding Luke would be very difficult without that force ability. She attempted to send out a message through force speech, but knew that any one of the students or other Jedi would pick up on it.  

Luke Skywalker? If you can hear this message, I have been informed in a dream to seek you...

Evie walked away from her ship to find this Luke guy wherever he was and found that everyone must have gone inside somewhere. She looked around for any possible place that people might be at and saw a temple in the distance. She decided that her best bet was to head toward that temple and to see if anyone greeted her when she got there. She wasn't sure what to think of the current situation that she found herself in. She hefted her supply backpack and set off. She figured that she'd make it to the temple in about an hour and a half..........


	7. Visions of the Past

Evadne reached the temple and walked in. She ducked into a corner to observe the fighting that was going on. She looked around and saw what looked like a Sith swinging his lightsaber at a woman. She gasped in terror as she watched the fight further advance. She looked around for this Luke person...and hoped that meanwhile she would not be discovered in her observing place. She had her lightsaber on her but she didn't want to use it unless absolutely necessary.  She reached out through the Force to touch the minds of the three people that she saw fighting....  Bye doing so, she was able to pick up some of their thoughts.  The girl who was fighting was named Jada, and one of the others was named Guage.  She was unable to read the third person's mind.  The fourth person was definitely a dark sider.  She knew that he was a Sith, and that he had probably followed her to Yavin 4.

Guage seemed to be under the control of the dark side of the Force.  She watched the fighting in amazement.  It appeared to her that maybe she had been mistaken at thinking that Guage was a Sith.

Luke Skywalker rolled out of the way as Guage's saber swung wide at Jada. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her duck. As Luke came up to his feet he saw a girl standing at the door with a saber clipped to her waist.    Reacting on instinct. Luke ran headlong at Guage and called the girl's saber to his hand. As it hit his hand it snap-hissed to life, glowing bright yellow. And he brought the lit saber up in front of him and stopped in front of Guage. Without warning Luke flung a nearby storage bin square into Guage's back that sent him sprawling...........

Evadne watched as her saber flew away from her. Great...she thought...what am I to do if I get attacked now? I am unarmed.... She ducked out of everyone's sight and into the shadows from where she would watch carefully to determine what was happening before she made  
her presence further known. She knew that one man knew she was there...the one that had taken her saber...She didn't want the Sith to know of her presence....   She stood very still.... waiting for the best chance to call back her saber.... She sensed through the Force that the person using it really needed it at the moment so she wasn't going to call it back to herself at the moment...

Evie's eyes grew wide as she watched the Jedi ban together and the Sith threaten them with death. Since she was unarmed, there was nothing that she could think of that was in her power to do about the situation so she silently watched as the group of Jedi advanced on the Sith.   All of a sudden she realized that this Sith looked very familiar.... it looked like the person that she last saw her mother with before her mother's mysterious death... She tried to clear her mind of that memory in case the Sith could read minds...it had taken her forever to forget that memory and now it had surfaced it could be her worst nightmare...

Evie watched as the lady that stood close to her was attacked by the Sith and given a bloody lip. Since the sith was so close to her now, she had no choice but to call her weapon back to herself and switch on its bright yellow glowing blade. As she did this, the sith kept an eye on her to determine if she would pose any threat to him.   The Sith determined that Evadne posed no threat to himself so he promptly ignored her...which would turn out to be his biggest mistake...  Evie promptly ran her lightsaber through the Sith's back, and he disappeared.  She looked at the place where he had stood only a few seconds ago with a confused look on her face, but promptly dismissed it and turned to the others.  She switched off her lightsaber.  Suddenly it started to rain.  Lightning ripped through the sky outside and cast shadows into the room.

Evie looked around at the people standing before her. She knew none of them and they did not know her. She walked up to one of them and said: "I am looking for the one who you call Skywalker." The person pointed her in Luke's direction so she walked over there. "Are you Skywalker?" She asked and the man nodded..."Hello my name is Evadne Darkstarr, I'm from Corellia...err...Bespin.  You may call me Evie." Princess Evie said as she extended her hand to Luke. "Actually, I was told that you might be able to help me figure out some aspects of my past." Evie looked at him expectantly. "And maybe that you can help me to figure out just who exactly I am."     
     "Um..." Luke stuttered, a little unsure of where to start, or if he had anything at all that would help her as much as she wanted.    

"Let me start with telling you a little about me. I think that I came from the royal family of Bespin, if there ever was such a  
thing. I've had these strange dreams that led me to that conclusion. I have a sister. I don't know if she is still alive or where she is. We were both taken away when we were young.... and they separated us...I never saw Aidia again... My ship crash-landed on Corellia and that's where I grew up. That's where I trained in the Force to become a Jedi. If the Force is strong in my family, it would do you a great service if my sister could be found... because if she isn't...the dark side may have already found her...." Evie looked at Luke.   

"That's not a good thing." Luke said.   

"Sorry to have to bother you with this, but I was told that you may have something of mine...." Evie said.

Evie followed Luke out of the room that they were in. They walked outside. The wind blew stray strands of Evie's red hair into her eyes and she kept pushing it away with the Force. She rolled her eyes when she noticed that Luke has sensed that she was using the Force to do such a pitiful thing such as moving her hair out of eyes with the Force.   She felt ashamed that Luke had sensed that. She blushed slightly.

"Where exactly are we going?" Evie asked.   

"We're going to a clearing in the woods." Luke said. Evie eyed  
him curiously.   

"What's there?" Evadne asked.

Luke worried that he had seen Guage head out into the rain in a hurry. He had been through a lot lately, best to let him be for a bit.    Luke stopped suddenly and bent down and cleared away some brush, "You  
wanted to know what's out here?" he said to Evie as he grasped a handle. He pulled up and a door opened from the ground. Revealing nothing but a dark hole. Gradually, though, the hole began to lighten up as a bank of lights illuminating what now appeared to be a tunnel with steps leading down.

"What is this?" Evie asked hesitantly.    

Luke half smiled, "It's a place I keep all those things that I never know what to do with. Follow me." Luke let the door fall back; the small hydraulic hinges caught it from flopping completely open.    Evie shrugged and followed him down into the humid  
corridor.  As she looked around herself it appeared that they were in some sort of grounded ship. This ship was not evident from the outside at all because it appeared to be completely buried in the ground as if it had crashed and the impact had buried it.   As Evie ran her hand along the corridor to brush off years of rust and dust, she came  
upon what seemed to be some sort of emblem. She turned to Luke. 

"What's that you're looking at Evadne?"  Luke asked. "The thing that I wanted you to see is down here further."

"I'm trying to figure out what it is myself. Hold on for a second. Let me clear this off and look to see who owned this ship. Then we can continue down there."

"Ah, ok." Luke answered as he silently waited for Evie to finish her business.   Evie cleared off the emblem. It was a star. Evie gasped and her hand went up to her cheek where she wiped off some make-up to reveal the star-shaped birthmark on her cheek.   "What is it Evie?" Luke asked.  

"This ship...It belonged to the Royal Family of Bespin. It could possibly be the one that my sister Aidia was on." Evie said.   

"You know all of that from an emblem?" Luke asked.  

"Actually.... something is coming back to me. Let me tell you something that I remember.  Do you see this birthmark on my face?" Evie asked as she pointed to the dark star shape on her right cheek. Luke nodded and Evie continued..."It is called the Empress's Star. It's a mark that identifies the Royal family. Each of us was star-kissed. I can't believe that I am just remembering this..."

"Seeing that emblem has triggered something in the Force for  
you Evadne. Now if you'll follow me, I'll show you what else I've found." Luke said.   Both Evadne and Luke continued down the corridor.


	8. Contact

They walked back towards the cargo hold of the ship; "I actually stumbled across this ship one day. You would never know it was here. Because of the growth around it. It actually juts out of the ground in  
sections. Here." Luke pointed at a closed door.    

"What's in there?" Evie questioned.    

"Well, like I said I use this place to store odds and ends of things. Things that I don't want found." He opened the door and cool air seeped out. A dim light cast shadows over the contents of the room. "Watch your step," he said to Evie as she followed him into the  
room.    

Evie stared around at the various items in the room,  
"Do you come here often?"    

"Not as much as I used to. Every few months or so." Luke looked around in thought, "Now where did I put it. Ah!" He scratched his chin in thought and motioned to the far corner, as he walked around the assortment of what looked like junk and antiques. Luke finally made his way to the far corner of the hold. "Here it is."     

Evie followed behind Luke, the floor creaking with each step, "What.... What is it?"    

Picking up a box, Luke blew dust off the top and turned around to her, "You probably have no idea what it is."  On each side smoothed off hieroglyphics were hardly noticeable. He handed it to her. She took it looking in wonderment.     "Before you open it. Let me tell you what I know about the box." Luke said. She nodded back to him not taking her eyes off it.    "While Lando was on Cloud City and Bespin, one of his people was doing some excavating on the planet. They came across this box. Lando had his people decipher the wording on the sides. On one side it says, 'Lady Evadne' and the other says, 'Jedi.' Since Lando knew I collected Jedi artifacts and he had no clue as to who 'Lady Evadne' was, he gave it to me for safekeeping. So that's how it came into my possession."   

 Evadne stared in amazement back at Luke.  Evie looked curiously at the box. She held it up to her eyes so that she could see it better. She had long forgotten how to read the hieroglyphs, so she trusted Luke that that is what it said.    She pressed her fingers into a tiny opening in the box and it popped open revealing what looked to be some sort of key...on a necklace. 

"Strange..." Evie said as she picked up the necklace and ran her fingers along the key that was shaped like a star. The key had more of these strange engravings on it. "Do you think that we can find  
someone who can read this?" Evie looked back over at Luke.  

"Ah... there is someone that I know who could tell you..." Luke said. "Let's head back to the Temple and we'll contact them from there."    

Evadne, with a hopeful gleam in her eyes, smiled.    They  
turned and left the storage room and headed back to the  
surface.  Evie wore the necklace around her neck for safekeeping.  They reached the temple.  Luke introduced her to Mara Jade. She looked over at Mara Jade.  "Is there anywhere I can stay here?" Evie asked. "It looks like I may be here for awhile." 

Mara smiled.  "Sure...let me see where can we put you up?" Mara said as she looked over at Luke.   

"There's a room at the far edge of the temple..." Luke said.

"What room Luke? You mean the storage closet?" Mara said. "Let me see if I can find someone who will share a bedroom."  Mara said as she walked out of the room.

Luke wondered if Mara was implying that he thought Evadne should stay in the storage closet. A funny thought then entered his mind as he thought that staying with the droids would be better.

    "Evie, why don't you go with Mara. I'll see if I can't get a hold of the person who can help us with deciphering that message." Luke said.    

Evie smiled, "It would be nice to see the place a bit. I'll catch up to you later." She looked back to where Mara had gone, "Hey Mara, wait for me." she called jogging after her.    

Luke walked out of the room and headed to his private chamber, "Time to call in a favor."  In his room, not much different than the rooms of the rest of the students at the temple, Luke sat down at a table where he had set up communications equipment. It was his backup system in case the main units went out. Also, it was his own link to the galaxy.    He first checked for any personal messages. None. Then he fired up the personal COM frequency of an old friend, "Hello, old friend. This is Luke." He waited for a response.    

Then it came, "Well, hey there Luke. How have you been?" Lando's voice sounded out of the box.

"I've been good. Battling Sith and all. Not much else. And you?"

"I haven't been better in years. The operation is going well. Business is booming. But I'm guessing this isn't just a social call, right?" Lando replied.    

Luke grinned, "You would be correct. I need just a small favor actually. Do you remember you gave me an item once, a small box, with hieroglyphics? That said something about Jedi."    

There was a pause, and then Calrissian came back, "Vaguely. Why? Something wrong?"

    "No. I have found the owner of the box. Rather, she found me. But there is a key inside that has the same writing. I was wondering if the person who deciphered it originally could give us a hand with this." Luke said.

    "I don't see why that would be a problem. I remember finding that box now. And I've still got Xander employed with us, I believe he was the one who did the deciphering. Ummm.... Just come on over whenever you'd like, and we'll see what we can do." Lando said.

    "Well, we'll be doing that shortly. Keep an eye out for us.  
Thanks for your help. See you shortly. Luke  
out."

    "Calrissian out."

Luke placed the unit on standby and walked out of his quarters.


	9. Coruscant

Mara turned to see the one Luke called Evadne coming toward her. Smiling, she walked with Evie to a room not to far from her own.

     "I realize it doesn't look like much, but it is better than the one Luke was joking about," she told Evie as they entered the room.    Looking around, Mara made mental notes on what to bring in to make the room more comfortable.  "I'm going to go and get a few things for you in here. I should only be a moment. Will you be ok while I  
am gone?" 

Evie nodded and Mara left to look for some supplies.  Mara went to the closet and found nearly everything she would need and started to carry them toward Evadne's room when Jada rounded the corner and knocked Mara down, sending blankets, sheets, and a few other items scattering all over the floor.

"Jada, you need to be more careful." Mara noticed that Jada was soaked and offered her one of the blankets when the COM beeped.  Jada, ignoring the offer, rushed to answer it.  
    Mara shook her head while picking up the items. She could feel some fear and puzzlement coming from Jada.  She looked over at the holocom that Jada was looking at and could barely make out the image of a figure in a dark cloak talking that was to her.  She finished picking up the items and headed to Evie's room and placed them on her bed. Evie was looking out the small window; she turned when Mara came in.

"Have you been here long?" Evie asked.    

"Feels like forever, but actually has been more like five years." Mara looked at Evie and could sense a bit of apprehension coming from her through the Force.  "Luke will help you, Evie, with whatever you are here for. I need to go and check on another young girl. Will you be ok until Luke can get back to you?" Mara asked.

    "Yeah, I'll just put these things away and thank you for bringing them in. I would have gotten lost trying to find them." Evie started to make the bed as Mara made her way to the door.    

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to holler."  With that Mara went toward the Med room.

Evie sat down on the bed after she was done making it. Something made her certain that she was destined to stay here with Luke and his followers for a very long time.    She decided to take a nap until Luke came to tell her when she could meet with the man that could tell her what the box and her necklace meant.  
  


Luke stepped into Evie's quarters, "Get your stuff together. We've got a meeting to get to. I talked with Lando and we have to meet him on Coruscant."

    Evie's face seemed to brighten; "I'll be ready in a flash." she beamed.

    Luke smiled, "I'll meet you outside by the ship."

Evie quickly grabbed her things and stuffed them into her back pack. She was really excited to finally meet someone who might be able to tell her a little about her past. Luke had already left the room, so she stepped out into the hallway. There was no one in sight since it seemed that Luke may have called a meeting for all of the people to meet so he could tell them that he was going to Coruscant.  Evie found the meeting room and took a seat at the back, not wanting to interrupt Luke who was in the middle of a speech.

Evadne slipped out of the meeting room and headed towards a girl that was sitting off by herself. The girl seemed to be in a daze, and it looked like she had been outside.   "Hello." Evie said to the girl. "I'm sorry. I don't think we've met." Evie extended her hand towards  
Jada. "My name is Evadne Darkstarr, but you can call me Evie."   

Jada shook the hand that was offered to her. "My name is Jada."

"Something seems to be bothering you." Evie said as she read a sense of loss and confusion coming from Jada. "Do you want to talk about it?"

   "It's a long story that I'm sure you don't want to hear." Jada  
said. Evie sat down next to her.

   "Well, I have time to listen. Why don't you come with me to Coruscant and we'll have enough time to talk on the way?" Evie suggested.   Then Evie waited for Jada's response.

Jada smiled at Evadne.   "Alright. Tell Master Skywalker I have to go pack my things, and then I'll be at the ship. Unless you want to talk while I pack? I could use someone to talk to right now." Jada said. She got up and started walking with Evadne.

"I can talk right now if you'd like. It doesn't  
matter to me." Evie said as she walked with Jada towards her room. "I'm sure that Luke wouldn't mind if we take a little bit of extra time to at least get to know each other a little before we go on the  
trip, as long as we're out there when they are loading the ship."

"Yeah... It would not be a good thing if we miss our ship." Jada said.

   "So what's on your mind?" Evie asked as she watched Jada pack a few things. 

Jada took some dresses and other clothes from her closet and laid them on the bed, "I don't know...its just everything that's been happening lately...The Sith...I had this dream about when I was little," She looked up, and had a look on her face that made Evie tell she was thinking about something, "and then I got this message from...from a boy. He wasn't a Sith. I could tell through the Force. And it was like I knew him from somewhere, but...I couldn't place it, and I still can't..." Jada sighed as she sat down on the bed. "My family is...messed up...I just found out that my parents are dead, my twin brother is...who knows where."  She looked down at the floor. "And then I have to deal with things here at the Academy...The Sith...Guage nearly turning to the dark side...Dealing with the fact that Guage and I broke up." She got up and looked away from Evie.  "It's not like I knew I was going to break up with him...I just...fell in love with  
someone else...I didn't really even give Guage a chance..." She said. She let out a breath and turned to her dresser to pack some jewelry and a brush for her hair.

Both Jada and Evie walked towards the ship. Evie listened carefully as Jada explained her life. Evie could feel the pain and confusion that came from the girl, and could relate to it her own feelings of pain and confusion. Evie didn't want to interrupt Jada with her own story because she was so interested in what Jada had to say, and she felt that if she interrupted, Jada would become quiet again...and Evie didn't want that. She knew that the best thing for Jada to do was to talk it out.... Perhaps when Jada was finished with her side, she'd ask Evie to tell a little about herself.   They boarded the Millennium Falcon and sat by each other...and Evie listened intently.

Jada looked at the ship and stopped. She looked around, wondering why she didn't see Guage around. She figured that he was probably off practicing with his lightsaber or something. She sighed, and then looked back at Evie.

"So basically...My life isn't at its best right now...What about you?" She looked at Evie, letting a smile come to her face, but it slightly faded, even while she was listening to Evie.

"Well...I've come here in search of my past...It seems like a lot of people hare have done the same thing. I'm the reason why we're going on this trip to begin with." Evie said as she made herself comfortable in the seat. "I'm searching for my lost family. My mother is dead...I know that.... My father is a Sith...and I have a sister who is missing."

   "Missing?" Jada asked curiously.

   "Well. The last time that I saw her is when I was ten and she was five. We were put aboard a ship after we witnessed our mother's murder. Mid flight, we were separated and she was sent aboard another ship. I was told that it was for our protection," Evie said.   

"That doesn't sound right..." Jada's voice drifted off.

   "My ship crashed before it ever reached its destination, so I don't know if we were to meet up.... but that never happened because the people on my ship all died except me... AND I was stranded on Corellia until a few months ago...The people on Corellia were nice...they were Jedi that raised me...but I miss my sister..." Evie said. Evie noticed that something else was occupying Jada's mind...   "Tell me what's wrong..." Evie said to Jada..."You seem distant and distracted." Evie smiled as she felt the ship lift off.  Finally she was going to find out some information that might lead her to find her sister, and to figure out what had happened to her family so long ago.  "If it's okay Jada, I'm going to take a nap." Evie said. Jada told her that it was fine.   

Evie lay down and began to dream. In her dream she was little again. It was the day that her mother was killed. She saw her sister Aidia, who was leaning in front of a mirror examining the star-shaped birthmark on her cheek and complaining that it made her look ugly. Evie could remember smiling at her sister and pointing to her own birthmark. That was the day that both girls realized something was seriously wrong. They had always been Force sensitive, so premonitions were almost every day occurrences to them... As Aidia looked at herself in the mirror, she felt a terrible pain. Evie had felt the pain too, and had looked Aidia in the eyes and seen the pain there too.   They  
knew that their mother was going to die before they witnessed her brutal murder.

    Evie woke with a start.  Why was it now that she was slowly remembering the terrible pain? Had she resurrected something from the past? Something that she had long ago buried? Something that was best forgotten? Evie sat up straight in her chair and looked around. It appeared that everyone was taking a nap. She remembered the dream that she had just had, and took out a faded, torn picture of her sister and herself.  The only thing that she had to remember her sister by. She  
studied the picture and saw both of the girls as she had seen them in her dreams...   She wondered if Aidia was out there holding the very same picture and wondering what happened to her sister. Evie wanted so dearly to be able to piece together her past so that she could  
find her sister faster.   

Evie got up and walked to the front of the ship, where she saw Luke and Mara. Luke looked up at her. "Heya Evadne. What's up?"  

"I'm just wondering how long it will take to get there. I'm kind of nervous." Evie said.

"Shouldn't be much longer." Luke leaned back in the chair, "Is there something on your mind?" he asked.    

"No. Just wondering what we'll find is all." She smiled a bit.

    Luke stretched his arms and groaned a bit, "Well, hopefully we'll find the answers you're looking for. Just be positive and let the Force guide you."    A beep came from the console.    "We're coming out of hyperspace. Can you let everyone know it won't be long?" he said to Evie. 

The cockpit had become crowded as everyone had come into trying to get a look at the city. Luke talked with control and gained clearance to land.  "Well, if what Lando told me is correct. His place should be just over here. We land, and then go straight into the building and one elevator just takes us straight down into his new development. And for those of you who would like to take an excursion off into the city there is another corridor which leads to a taxi area."    Luke fired the repulsors and brought the Falcon to a soft landing, "Here we go." He said standing up.    

The excitement in the air was high. Evie left the cockpit followed by Jada, then LaDessa. Mara fell in behind them. And Luke stepped in behind Mara. They headed out onto the landing platform.   

They all stood in a half circle around Luke, "Here's  
the plan. We will meet back in two standard days. Mara is off on her own mission. Evadne is with me." Luke looked to Jada and LaDessa, "What about you two?"

Evie turned to Luke and asked him what kind of  
information he thought that Lando would give her. Luke said  
that he didn't know, but it ought to be interesting.

    "I wonder if this guy has any clue to the possible whereabouts of my sister Aidia." Evie said excitedly. "Maybe he can take me to Aidia...." Evie's voice trailed off. "I don't think that will happen though." She sighed, and frowned slightly. "You know, I had a dream  
about the day that our mother died."    

"Well, let's go." Luke said as he turned towards the building, "You ladies better figure out where you are headed. Time is running." He called back to Jada and LaDessa, and then looked to Evie, "Let's find your past." Evadne smiled slightly at him.  Abruptly Luke stopped and cocked his head, "Strange." he whispered to himself. He looked left and right, "Strange." he muttered once again.    

Evie stood looking at him, perplexed, "What is it?" the concern echoed in her voice.  
    "Not sure. Let's go see Lando," he said changing the subject.    She shrugged as they walked into the alcove housing the elevator. Entering the elevator Luke pressed the button for Evie's destiny. And they began to plummet. Evie and Luke crowded over as a few more people  
got into the elevator.   

"What do you think Lando will tell us?" Evie asked as she turned to Luke.  

"I'm not sure Evie, but I'm sure that it will be worth while." Luke said. "Now were you going to say something about that dream that you had?"

   "Yeah, I dreamed of the day that we were separated. Both Aidia and I  
knew that something was wrong before we witnessed the murder." Both Evie and Luke stepped out of the elevator and looked around at the wondrous sites.   "How do you know where we are going Luke?" Evie questioned as she followed Luke.   

"Lando gave me a run down on this place while we were aboard the ship." Luke sighed. "We will be there in a little bit."   

"I sense that there's someone here that I may have known a long time ago.... possibly one of the Royal Guards of the Royal Family of Bespin." Evie said all of a sudden. "Whoever it is, it's a presence that I haven't felt since I was a child." Evie said. Evie and Luke had hailed a cab and were now inside of one as it shuttled them down the main street. Evie suddenly had the feeling that they were being followed.  She looked at Luke to see if he had the same feeling, but he showed no sign of knowing. Evie turned around in her seat and looked out the back window. She was surprised to see both Jada and LaDessa sitting in the back seat of the cab that was following them. She waved at them to let them know that they would meet up at the destination.

Evie wondered what lie ahead for her concerning her future, as the cab came to a halt. Evie still turned around flew into the back of the seat,"HEY!"

    Luke laughed to himself, "Come on let's go find Lando," he chuckled. They climbed out of the car, and watched as Jada and LaDessa's cab shot right past them.

    "Where do you suppose they are going?" Evie asked watching them speed off.

"I don't know." Luke wondered aloud. 

Evie rubbed her sore neck. "Talk about whiplash…that hurt like  
heck!" Evie said. Luke laughed at her and the both of  
them headed into the building.   There was a person  
at the desk that looked up at them. 

"Can I help you two?" The person said. Evie faltered and then looked at Luke....

"I hope you can. We have a standing appointment with Lando Calrissian." Luke spoke up.

    The man behind the desk reached for some sort of log book, "And  
your name?" 

   "Wenchel." Luke replied.  

The man scanned the book for a moment, "Ah, yes. Here it is. You will find Mr. Calrissian on the Promenade Level. Head towards the end of the hall. Follows the signs, you can't miss it," the man said abruptly and turned his back on them.    

Luke gave him a look, then turned to Evie, "To the Promenade level we go then." Luke sensed her anticipation.

    As Luke went to head down the hall, Evie grabbed him by the elbow, "I don't want to be disappointed. Can Lando help us?"  He heard the urgency in her voice.

"Yes, I am confident."

Xander sat by himself in the large dining area. Everyday at this time the workers of the Dometown took their lunch breaks. The place was at peak capacity. Solitary in his thoughts, he sat in and waited for the call from Lando Calrissian. He had been instructed that he was on call. Something about Calrissian having some guests in who needed some deciphering only he could do. It was fine with him. A change of pace would do him some good. They hadn't found much in their digs of late. The above ground officials had been picky and wanted to make sure all areas were excavated so as not to lose any artifacts. And well Xander was the resident expert.    He sat and waited for the  
call.

Luke smiled back at Evie and both of them started to walk down the hall again. They followed the signs that lead them up a staircase and around a corner. The building reminded Evie of a maze.

   "I feel like a rat in here...this maze." Evie said. Luke  
smiled... He was feeling the same thing.   LaDessa and Jada  
struggled to keep up with Luke and Evie, but lost them as  
they turned a corner.

"Blaster bolts!" LaDessa said.  "Where did they go?"   

"Listen...you can hear them talking." Jada said as she followed the sound. They soon came upon Luke and Evie.

"Hey guys! Wait up!" LaDessa called to Evie. LaDessa and Jada caught up to Luke and Evie just as they neared the end of the hallway.    

"Were you guys trying to lose us?" Jada slyly asked.

"No, not at all." Evie smiled.   

Luke interrupted, "Well, let's see if Lando is here." He pushed the COM button by the door they now stood in front of.

    A scratchy voice came back, "Do you have an appointment?"

    "Yes, we are here for Lando Calrissian." Luke replied.

    "Mr. Calrissian has no appointments for today. You are  
mistaken. Now leave," the person answered sharply.  
    Luke gave Evie a half smile then turned back to the  
COM, "YOU ARE MISTAKEN. WE WILL SEE LANDO."  
    Immediately the voice on the other end came back, "I am mistaken. You will see Lando." Almost instantly the door in front of them slid open revealing a room full of cubicles. They all walked into the large room.    

"I think that Jada and I will go for a walk.  We want to leave you to your business, and then we can meet up later maybe?" LaDessa asked.  She grabbed Jada by the arm and turned and walked back the way that they had come.   

"I think that this is the place that we need to go to." Evie pointed.  Luke's eyes followed the direction in which she pointed. At the other side of the room they spotted a set of large doors, ornately decorated.

"Well, what are we waiting for. Shall we?" Both Luke and Evie stepped up to the desk that Lando was sitting at. Lando looked up at Luke and smiled. 

"Hey old buddy...Haven't seen you in awhile." Lando exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting you to come here for another day. I'm sorry if my secretary gave you any problems." Lando then looked over at Evie, who was looking off in another direction and twirling bits of her red hair around her fingers. "And who have we here?"

   "This is Evadne Darkstarr. She's the one who I was telling you about. She's the reason why we came." Luke said. "Evadne is searching for clues about her past, and the whereabouts of her sister and possibly other family members." Luke turned to Evie. "Did you  
say that you might have other family members that are still living?"

"No I didn't...Well, besides my sister Aidia." Evie explained.

"Aunts or Uncles maybe?" Lando asked. "Or cousins...or some other distant relatives?"   

"No. It was just my mother, my father, Aidia and I." Evie sighed. "That was until my mother was murdered."   

"How interesting." Lando said as he pushed the button to notify the guy that could help Evie. Evie's hands suddenly went to her head as it started to ache. Luke looked at her and asked if she was ok. Evie wanted to nod an affirmative, but the  
headache just got worse.

   "Something's wrong..." Evie's voice trailed off...she was distracted. "I don't know what it is...but something's very wrong..." Evie tried to focus back on what Lando and Luke were doing, but it was becoming difficult for her to do so. She sighed heavily and waited for whomever Lando had contacted to respond. Luke saw the anguish on Evie's face. 

He felt the same thing as her. As if two voices had cried out in  
agony. Then subsided. He closed his eyes and tried to  
pin point the source. LADESSA! She was down. But where was Jada, he couldn't find her.

     "Luke, what's wrong?" Lando asked concerned. Luke held up a hand and continued feeling through the Force. Stretching out Luke searched for Mara, and then touched her mind, "Are you okay?". All he got were horrible images. Then a familiar presence passed through him,  
Guage…  

Luke opened his eyes as the assistant Lando had called for entered, "Am I interrupting anything?" the man asked.   

"No...." Lando answered. "Luke what's wrong?"  Evie then collapsed into an empty chair, holding her head. 

Luke ran to her side, "Everything will be ok. Lando, you have infiltrators."  

Lando walked around to Luke's side, "I don't see how. But I'll take your word for it." He walked over to his desk and punched buttons on a control panel of some sort, "I just locked down the facility. There will be no one getting in or getting out. And I alerted my security teams. Now what do we need to do?"    

Luke looked at him stone faced, "Save some friends."    

"Let's do it."  Lando came back, "Xander you stay here. We still need you. We'll be back in no time."    

Luke looked back to Evie, "I think you should stay here."

Evie grabbed Luke's arm and held him back. "They should be okay. I have a sense that someone is there with LaDessa, and is helping her." Evie said. Luke remembered that he had felt Guage's presence along with LaDessa and he nodded in agreement.

"You're right Evie." Luke sighed. "I made a promise to you, and I should stay with you so that we can find out your information." Luke sighed again. "Lando, send out any security troops that you can spare in search of LaDessa, Guage and Jada. They couldn't have been taken far."

Lando nodded. "Ok. Will do." Lando said. He turned on his comlink and notified security. Then he turned back to Evie and Luke and Xander. "Ok, now let's see what we can do for you Evadne."   Evie smiled as she took several things out of her pocket. One of them was the last picture taken of her and her sister before they were separated. She also took out the puzzle box that she had found, and showed them the key/necklace that she had found inside it. She hoped that Xander would be able to tell her something about it. Evie stood holding the box and necklace as Luke and Lando left the room.

"Miss....Miss.MISS?" Xander repeated.    

Finally Evie snapped out of it, "Ummmm...yes. I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."    

Xander walked towards her, "Hey, it's ok. So this box you have. I remember discovering it. Have you found anything out about it  
all?"

"Well, it bears the symbol of the Royal family of Bespin, of which I am part. That's about all I know about it. The ship that Luke had been storing it on also bears the same mark. It may have been that the ship was one of Bespin's old fighter brigades. The ship and the box with the necklace are not dated the same. So I know that they have nothing to do with each other I think." Evie said.

"I haven't seen the ship, so I can't help you with that. I can tell you a little about the circumstances under which I discovered the box. I didn't know about the necklace inside, as I guess that I didn't look at the time, and I doubt I would have been able to open the box, as it looks to me that the box was only meant to open for certain people. My guess is that it has something to do with the Royal insignia on the box. It looks to be coded with some sort of reference point. That's why it opened for you and not for anyone else." Xander  
said.

"Ok, but what does it all have to do with me?" Evie said.

"Well, you are obviously of the Royal family of Bespin, that's not debatable, but as I take it, you already knew that." Xander said. Evie nodded.   

"So how did you come to discover this box, and what can you tell me about it?" Evie asked. "There is another that could have opened this box. Her name is Aidia. We were separated when we were younger, and I haven't seen her since." Evie's voice trailed off in reverie.

Xander looked over the box carefully, "We discovered the box on a dig down on Bespin. That's about it. As I looked at the box it said, as it still does. 'Lady Evadne' on side and 'Jedi' on the other."

"What about this?" Evie handed him the necklace with the key on  
it.  

Taking it, Xander turned the item over in his hand and noticed the hieroglyphics on the key, "Well this lettering here, is different than that of the box. And actually, believe it or not, it's fairly  
common."    

"Really?" Evie said questioningly.    

Xander looked up at her, "Yea..it only says one word but  
twice.....Zorba."

"I've never heard of that word. Is it a person or a place?" Evie asked. "I'm sorry to say that I have quite forgotten my native language. When my ship crashed on Corellia, the Jedi who found me could not understand what I was saying." Evie sighed. "I wish it was still in my power to decipher what is written on the box and necklace." Evie looked away for a minute. "So you say that this word is fairly common, or the necklace is fairly common, and why would it be in a box  
with my name on it?"  

Xander looked at her a bit puzzled, "You've never heard of Zorba the Hutt? Everyone has heard of him."    

Evie's face straightened a bit, "A Hutt? You must be kidding."    

"No I am not," Xander said flatly, "Zorba is Jabba's father, a huge Hutt with stringy white hair and a white beard. He has to keep his hair braided, so that it doesn't fall into his face. And let me warn you he is just as ruthless and conniving as Jabba ever was."    

"So what are you saying then?" Evie asked.  

Xander walked over sat behind Lando's desk then answered, "What I am saying is I think you are going to Nal Hutta, the Hutt home world to find Zorba."

Evie looked at Xander in surprise. "Me? You've got to be kidding!" She shook her head. "The Hutts are dangerous. Everyone knows that. Plus, I don't think they like Jedi. Especially after the incident with Leia Organa." Evie sighed. "Was that really all you could tell me about my past?"   

"I'm afraid so." Xander said. Evie sighed again. She was afraid of this. Somehow she had known that Xander wouldn't have been able to tell her much about her background.  "Well, all we have to do now is to wait for Luke and the rest of your friends to come back."    Evie sighed as she took out the picture of her and her sister. She felt that she might as well show it to Xander, because maybe he had come across Aidia before. She just had to give asking him a try. She held the picture out in front of Xander. 

"Have you ever seen her before? She'd be about 20 years old now?" Evie's voice trailed off as Xander nodded a negative. Evie looked at Xander and sighed. "I was afraid that you would not be able to tell me much. I guess I'll have to tell Luke that we need to go to Nal Hutta." Evie exclaimed. "I guess I should go find them." 

Xander reached up and grabbed Evie's hand.  "Please don't do that. It's dangerous out there. Anyway, Luke told me to keep you here." Xander said. Evie sighed and took a seat to wait. Xander was getting a bit bored sitting here waiting for Lando to come back. Finally, he spoke, "Let's go find your friends. We aren't accomplishing anything by waiting here."    

Evie's face brightened, "I thought you'd never speak up."  

Xander headed for the door, "Follow me."  Evie turned and  
followed right behind.    


	10. Nal Hutta

MINUTES LATER    

From across the street Xander spotted Lando, and some others, including Luke, "Well, that looks like them. Let's go bug 'em a bit. Shall we?"

"Yeah good idea." Evie replied as Xander grabbed her hand and they made their way through traffic. Luke spotted them and waved them over. 

"Hey Luke, it looks like we're going to Nal Hutta." Evie said when she finally caught her breath.   

"What happened here?" Xander asked.   

"Well we've got one missing." Mara spoke up. Evie let out the breath she had been holding when she heard Luke say that he would be going with her on her mission. She had figured that Luke would not keep his promise, considering that one of his students was missing. Somehow Evie felt relieved, but then she also had feelings of being too proud mixed in with that. Could she really take Luke away from his students?   Luke sensed Evie's uncertainty. 

"Hey Evie. Don't worry about that. They can handle this situation without me, and we do need to continue on your quest." Luke said softly.  

Evie smiled. "Ok... Well, the next stop is Nal Hutta." Evie said as she sighed.   

"Ok well that means that we need to get ourselves another ship.  We will leave the Falcon here for the others." Luke said as he looked over at Lando. "Hey Lando, can you spare us a ship?"   

Lando looked up at Luke. "Yeah. The Lady Luck is free. You two better take good care of her though. She's in docking bay 12. Luke you know the security code." Lando said. He then pulled out  
his COM. "This is Lando...get the Lady Luck ready..." Lando said into the comlink. Evie looked curiously at the group. She felt sad that she'd have to leave them, but Luke had promised that he would help her find her past.   "The ship's ready." Lando said as he took Evie's hand and started to drag her away from the group. Evie looked back at Luke desperately. She wondered if he noticed that Lando was taking her away towards the ship. Luke seemed to be absorbed in his discussion with the other group members.   Evie sighed as she let herself be ushered into the docking bay. Lando smiled as he showed her the ship and helped her into it. Evie took the most comfortable looking seat and sat down to wait for Luke.

Luke looked to Mara, "I would like you to lead the team. If you don't mind?"    

"Of course. What are waiting for let's get moving!" she  
replied.    

"Keep in contact with me. We'll be heading for Nal Hutta. May the Force be with you, Guage, and Jada."    With that Luke left them and headed for the ship. Moments later he stepped into the cockpit of the Lady Luck where Evie sat waiting.    

"I thought you'd never come," she smiled.    

"Hey, I wasn't going let you down." Luke said. Luke ran the ship through a few pre-flight checks then sighed heavily, "I hope everything goes well with them. I just have this foreboding sense something bad is going to happen."    

Evie looked at him, "I'm sure everything will be ok. You've trained them well". She tried to reassure him.    

"Yea, I guess you're right," he leaned back in his seat, "they  
have to face their own challenges. I can't be there all the time."    Pushing himself up, Luke reached for the controls, "Let's go find your sister, huh?"    

A smile crept across Evie's face, "Yes, let's do."

    Luke navigated the Lady Luck out of the docking bay and headed for Nal Hutta. Evie sat back in her chair and stared off into space... She closed her eyes to catch a bit of sleep because she knew that there was going to be a long journey ahead of them. She then started to  
dream... 

BEGIN DREAM   

"Evadne?" Aidia called to Evie. Evie looked up from the book that she'd been reading, and over at Aidia who looked to be trying to cook something. Evie smiled mischievously.

"Whatcha makin' Aiddie?" She asked as she watched Aidia drop several eggs on the floor accidentally. Aidia beamed with a smile. 

"I'm makin' a cake for momma!" Aidia exclaimed as she took a towel and then tried to wipe up her mess. Suddenly darkness swept over the kitchen, and a man entered. Both Evie and Aidia looked up at him in horror.   His face was familiar...and yet it wasn't. Each girl had seen the face hover over their baby cribs when they were infants.   Both Aidia and Evie gulped as the figure mysteriously disappeared the way it had appeared... The darkness following it... Evie was the first to speak up. She thought it best to forget the awful man and help Aidia with her cake.

Suddenly the cook came into the kitchen and saw what Aidia and Evie were doing. The cook was a nice old lady, but she didn't like  
taking the responsibility to watch Aidia and Evadne so she shoed them out of the kitchen....and into their own bedroom.   Suddenly there was a scream....

END DREAM

Evie woke up paralyzed with fear as her memory started to slowly give her hints of what had happened the day their mother died. Luke looked over at Evie.  He could tell that she was troubled. 

"Hey, tell me what's wrong." Luke said.

"Well, it's a dream.... I keep having it, but every time that I do, I keep remembering something different. This time I remember a dark figure that came in when Aidia and I were cooking. The only problem is that this man was of some relation to us.... I think it's who killed our mother." Evie sighed. 

Luke pondered what she said... The Lady Luck dropped out of hyperspace, Nal Hutta, the home world of the slimy Hutts loomed large in the front viewport.    "Perhaps, some of the answers you seek lie down there."  Luke motioned towards the planet. "I promise you'll we'll find your sister. The truth is usually far from us. Just requires a little digging sometimes."    

Evie smiled at Luke and nodded. "I hope that you're right," she said as the ship landed. "Um what kind of welcome do you think we'll get?" Evie glanced at the landing pad from the window.

   "This I'm not sure of." Luke said as he made some minor adjustments to secure the alarm on the ship, and then to open the door. Evie lingered in the doorway, not sure as to where to go from there. She looked questioningly at Luke.... "Before we head out we should disguise  
ourselves." Luke said.

"Oh, Good idea." Evie looked at Luke and noticed he was no longer there, rather someone else stood before her. The once handsome and dashing Luke Skywalker now appeared as a beggar in tattered clothing, unshaven, and looked quite a bit older.

    Luke smiled, "You like?"  Evie couldn't help but giggle just a bit. Luke waited to see what she came up with. Evadne closed her eyes and thought about her disguise. She had disguised herself on numerous times  
before but the only problem she had was that no matter how hard she tried, her star-shaped birthmark remained on her cheek. When she opened her eyes, they were a pretty silver color and her hair was the same striking silver color. She walked out of the ship and stooped down to pick up some dirt. She smeared the dirt on her face, hoping that it would be good enough to cover her birthmark.

"How's this?" She asked. Her clothing changed to pants and a dirty t-shirt. "Nobody will ever know it's me... I hate pants and  
t-shirts...but I'll have to put up with it I guess." Evie said.  

"Nobody will know it's you." Luke stooped down and picked up some more dirt. "Here, your birthmark still shows through a little... Let me cover it for you." He said as he put more dirt on her face. "Let's  
hope that doesn't fall off."   The two turned towards the city. 

"Now what?" Evie asked.

"Well, Zorba has these elaborate parties every night. A real party animal. All we have to do is gain access. That's the easy part." Luke replied as they headed into the dirty city.

LATER THAT DAY AS EVENING FELL

    Luke and Evie had found a group of denizens who were headed for Zorba the Hutt's nightly parties.  They travelled with the group as they approached Zorba's palace. They could barely make the place out as it was recessed back into a large mountainside. Undoubtedly in the day it would be tough to spot from the air.

"See I told you," Luke whispered to Evie, "not a problem." Suddenly Luke felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a voice, "Hey, human! I don't know you." Luke and Evie slowly turned around.  "Yes?" Luke, looking like his old beggar self, replied matter-of-factly.

"I haven't seen you before," grunted the pig-nosed guard.

"I see. Well we are regulars. I assure you." Luke motioned slightly. Some others ahead had turned around to see what was going on. Luke gave them a 'look'. They turned and headed down the corridor.

The pig-nose's snout twitched, "I don't like the smell of you."  
he grunted.

"Well, you're not exactly pleasant yourself."

The Gamorrean's eyes narrowed and he moved up to Luke, "Rancor bait is what you'll be."  Luke sighed, as Evie just stood by his side and watched the exchange. 

Luke threw Evie a quick glance, "These guys are so pig headed." With a flick of the wrist the Gamorrean guard found himself smacked against the wall and slid down with a thud, unconscious. "We've got a party to get too." Luke took Evie by the arm.  Evie was wide eyed. As Luke and Evie continued to walk into the place where the party was being held, Evie looked around at the huge place. It was like an underground palace!  Luke smiled, he was thinking the same thing.

"What exactly were we going to do in here? It's not like we can just walk up to the Hutts and say who we are. Even if we could do that, they may not want us here. How do we get the information that we need from them?" Evie asked.

"With a little luck...and some mind tricks." Luke winked at Evie. She shrugged her shoulders.   "That may not work on a Hutt. It didn't work on Jabba... You of all people should know that..." Evie pointed out.   Somebody bumped into Evie and grabbed her arm. She did all she could to keep from screaming in surprise.

The man took her away from Luke and led her to another part of the room... What looked to be a bar area. Evie looked back at Luke helplessly...   The man saw that Evie was looking at Luke, but didn't pay that mind... He just positioned himself in her view so that she couldn't see Luke.

"So... I've never seen you here before." The man said. He looked like trouble.... Evie gulped. She didn't want to pull out her saber because she knew that that would attract unwanted attention... She just wanted to get back to Luke and get this whole thing done with.

Luke watched as the burly man took Evie aside. Not wanting to cause a stir Luke slowly walked up to the man and aimed the blaster he had hidden at the small of the man's back, "I suggest you let her go."

The man turned around, "Hey listen old man. This doesn't concern you."

Luke still in disguise, "I don't take kindly to people man handling my daughter." Evie raised an eyebrow at the comment.

"What are you going to do to me, little man?" grunted the large man.    Luke reached into his mind for a clue as to what he was looking for. Not much in there. This guy wasn't too bright. 

But Luke did find something, "Listen, I'll pay you to leave her alone."

"Pay? You wouldn't have enough beggar."

"Oh really?" Luke retorted. Reaching into his pocket Luke pulled out what appeared to be a handful of gems, "Corusca jewels. Quite valuable. In exchange for the girl?"

"How do I know they are real?"

"They are real."  Luke pushed.

"Yea, I can tell they are real," the man repeated.

Luke stretched out his hand, "Come, my dear." Evie took his hand.

As they walked back into the crowd of people she asked, "Where  
did you get those gems?"

Luke chuckled a bit, "Those weren't gems. It was actually, a tree viper, poisonous and a constrictor. He'll figure it out."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came a scream from behind them. Luke and Evie turned around to see the man now lying on the ground with  
the snake coiled around his arm.    Evadne blushed.  It had seemed that she had fallen for one of Luke's mind tricks as well.  She had really thought she'd seen the glimmer of those jewels.

Luke took Evadne by the arm, "Come on. We have to go to a lower level....to the dungeon. I picked something up from a couple people's thoughts."

Evie followed Luke. "Well, lead the way." She said. She wondered if Luke had ever been here before...she knew that she hadn't. That's one thing that she remembered her parents telling both her and her sister. KEEP AWAY FROM THE HUTTS. She had obeyed that rule until now.  She wondered what her parents had known to give her this information and drill it into bother her and Aidia's heads so much that they could say it in their sleep...   She attempted to probe Luke's mind to find out what exactly he had figured out...but discovered that Luke's mind was blocked. This was something that she had forgotten to do for herself... but as she looked around at all of the people with simple minds...she thought that no one would figure out her identity. 

Suddenly there was a loud clear voice ringing in her head. It was a male's voice and it called her by her name. Evie turned to Luke to see if it was he... but he seemed too preoccupied with getting out of the room and down a few levels...   

"Evie????" The voice called again in her head... Had Luke heard it too?

"Do hear that?" Evie whispered to Luke.

"Hear what?"

Concern filled Evie's voice, "Someone is calling my name."

"I haven't heard anything." Luke replied. They continued to make their way into the deepest part of the Hutt fortress, a rat skittered here and there. Slime and muck covered the walls. Then they passed various rooms, some with opened doors, and others that looked closed for a long time. A series of screams pierced the dark hallway they walked down.  Singular lights in the middle of the ceiling were spaced  
unevenly giving the place and eerie cast. With the Force Luke could feel a variety of ones in distress and imprisoned close by. Then that's when he spotted it, a glint. Like light reflecting off a mirror.     Luke pointed towards it, and motioned to Evie. They crept closer and Luke could see a hand extended out of a cell, holding a mirror out into the hallway. Obviously this person was using it to watch them.

Luke and Evie crept closer to the prisoner's cell. 

"Princess Evadne...Is that you?" The person from the cell spoke out loud. It was the same voice that Evie had heard in her mind. She looked at Luke and wondered what she should do.  Somehow the voice was familiar.... it's as if Evie had heard it before... Then she remembered where. It was the voice of one of the people who worked for her parents. It was the man who Evie last saw leading her sister to her transport ship.   Evie walked closer to the cell and glanced in. The man drew back in fright as he caught a glance of Evie.

Through his mirror he had been watching a Luke approach, but he hadn't seen Evie... He knew that she was with him, but the glimpse of this strange looking girl with silver hair and eyes frightened him....this was not the little girl that he remembered...   "Where is Princess Evadne? I must speak to her..." The man's voice trembled,  
as if he was afraid that in her disguise Evie would hurt him.

"I am Evadne." Evie said. She wasn't sure if she should let down her disguise because there were other people in the prison that would see her if she did that. She leaned in towards the man and whispered. "I am in disguise because I don't want the Hutts to recognize me." The man nodded.

"Yes... You would not want that to happen. The Hutts did not like  
it when your mother broke off her marriage to your father... They are very close friends of your father's." The man said.

"My father?" Evie asked confused...her thoughts drifted back to the dark figure that had drifted in and out of her and Aidia's lives...

"Yes... I suppose that you don't remember him... Well, it's good that you don't. I'd be lying if I said that he was a loving father to you girls," The man went on. "He was a Jedi, but something serious happened. He met up with the wrong people and he decided to follow their beliefs..." The man said, his voice drifting off in reverie.

"You mean that he turned to the dark side?" Luke asked. The man nodded an affirmative. Luke could sense that there was something else that the man knew that he was hiding from Evie.

"I have a couple of questions, how did you come to be here?"  Luke said.  The man went to answer, but Luke raised a hand and interrupted him, "And what happened to her sister?" This was what Luke was curious about.

The man studied Luke for a few seconds. "Well, all I can tell you is that the last time that I saw Aidia, she was being taken aboard yet another ship. Our ship had been attacked as soon as we left the ship that Evadne was on. Some strange men in an unmarked ship disabled our engine with a blast from an ion bolt. They then pulled our ship in close to theirs and boarded. They seemed to be in search of something...or someone.... What they found was Aidia and I. They had their guns set to stun and they hit me with a bolt. I went down but landed on my side.... Then one of the men grabbed Aidia and took her away..." The man said.  

"Where is she now?" Evie asked. The man shrugged.   

"That I am unsure of..." The man said. "All I can tell you is that the one of the men looked very familiar to me...."   

"How did you come to be in here?" Luke asked again.   

"This is where I was taken... They left me here to die because I know about the ambush on the royal escort ship.... I know too much about the family..." The man frowned.  The man took a second to think as his eyes fell upon Evie's bulging stomach.  "You are with child, Princess Evadne?"

Evadne nodded.  Her hands went down instinctively to caress her belly.  "Yes, what is it to you?"

Suddenly the man spoke to her mind through the Force.  "Both you and your unborn child are in grave danger!  There is one that seeks to destroy your family!"  The man's Force-voice raised to a shriek and then he settled down.  Evadne was horrified.  She didn't know what to make of the warning.  She looked at Luke, who didn't seem to notice, so she frowned and tried to forget what she had heard.  With Luke around, she was sure that no harm would come to her or her baby.

Luke took Evie aside for a moment, "Do you think he knows anything about this key you have?"  Evie held the key in her hand and turned it over a couple of times.  "I mean it's your choice. In the end." Luke looked at her as he could tell she was thinking.

Evie held the key out to the man to see. "Do you know anything about this?" She asked.

The man's eyes widened. "Who gave you that?????" The man sounded panicked. "That box was supposed to stay lost..."  Evie looked at the key and the box that it came in.

"What's so dangerous about a little box and key?"  

"That box was given to you by your father... He received it from the Hutts... When your mother found out she told me to dispose of it."

"But what is it?"  Evie asked.   "Only your dead mother and the Hutts know that... I think that it will reveal a bit about your past though. I can say no more. I have already put you in danger by telling you what I have." 

Luke thought for a moment, "But I think if we can find out what this key opens. Then we will not need the Hutts at all."

"I don't see how that's possible." the prisoner said.

"Evie, have you tried using the Force. Do you get anything from this key or the box? Any feelings, images?" Luke inquired. 

Evie held the key in her hands.... Suddenly images flooded back into her mind....   She saw Aidia as a little girl... but this was after the fact that the two girls were separated. She saw Aidia aging slightly until she was as old as she would be by now.

"It's something to do with Aidia... She's still alive." Evie said. "I saw images of the planet that she was on."

"What did it look like?" Luke asked.

"Well there were lots of plants and wildlife, and the creatures who live there live in the tree tops," Evie said. She didn't know which planet she was describing, because she had not journeyed to many planets. "The creatures that live there are very tall, and hairy." Evie observed.

"I think I know which planet you're talking about." Luke said. "Was your sister still there?"

"I think so... I saw her grow in that brief flash in the Force." Evie concluded. "The key must lead us to where she is."

"Well, looks like we're off to that planet." Luke said. They turned and started to walk out of the dungeon... Evie and Luke headed back out the way they came.

Suddenly the Hutt's guards surrounded them. Evie looked at Luke helplessly. Seems like their disguises didn't work... Maybe it was the fact that the dirt had fallen off her face, revealing the Empress's Star and someone had recognized the mark on her cheek.  What appeared to be a bounty hunter stepped up to Evie and started to say something to her. Luke stood protectively in front of her... 

Suddenly Luke's Comlink beeped. He picked it up. It was Mara... she sounded like she was in distress. Luke quickly recorded a message back to Mara saying that they had run into a bounty hunter. He also said that they were going to make a run to the planet Kashyyyk. He hoped that Mara wouldn't get mad that he and Evie couldn't help at the  
moment.

Suddenly the weapons from everyone in the group minus Evie and Luke's flew from out of their hands... Luke grabbed Evie's hand and they headed for the ship. The bounty hunter and his group wasted no time and were on their heels. Once they reached the ship Luke jumped in and so did Evie. They raised the ship off the ground and blasted off for Kashyyyk. Fortunately, Calrissian had always made sure the Lady Luck was in prime condition. Luke fired up the navicomp, and hyperspace was a moment away.  But he was having a hard time shaking the bandits on his tail. He took the ship through a series of dips and rolls. He had no idea who it was that was after them but it didn't matter.

Finally the computer came through, "Here we go." Luke yelled. And they blasted into hyperspace.


	11. Kashyyyk

"Do you think they'll follow us?" Evie asked in a concerned tone.

"I'm not sure. But we better not risk it." Luke stood up and stretched, "I'll send a message to Kashyyyk. I know some Wookies who will be more than willing to help."  Luke sat back down and opened up a COM channel for the Wookie home world. Evie sat back as Luke talked to the Wookie in what little Wookie language he knew and hoped that they'd be admitted.

Suddenly something struck the port side of the ship and it rocked with the collision.  

"What WAS that?" Evie said, panicked.

"Don't worry about it, just get back there and check the shields. We should be landing shortly." Luke said. Evie obeyed and went back to see if there was any damage to the ship.

"You friend Lando is not going to like this..." Evie said. "You never told him that his ship would be shot at..."

"We'll land and see what the Wookies can do to repair the ship." Luke said. He had been granted a place to land. Suddenly a burst of energy flew out of the planet and hit their pursuers...

"What WAS that?" Evie said again, agitated.  

"Planetary defense." Luke smiled. "Now let's see if we can find your sister." Luke took the ship down towards the planet. Kashyyyk, home of the Wookies, who were once enslaved by the Empire. Home of the Rebel hero, Chewbacca.  Luke brought the ship down. As Evie and Luke stepped from the ship they were greeted instantly, by Chewbacca.  Chewie was on the planet, visiting his kin. "Greetings," Luke said.  The Wookie barked something Evie couldn't understand. 

Fortunately a translator droid spoke up, "Master Skywalker so nice to for you to pay us a visit."

"It's good to come back," Luke smiled. "This is Princess Evadne Darkstarr," he said to Chewie.

"Hello." Evadne said meekly.

"Chewie says he can help you to find the information and person you seek." The droid chimed in.

Evadne smiled. "I'm so glad to hear that." She said as she followed Luke and Chewie into a nearby hut. Evie looked around. They seemed to be on the canopies of trees. This made her feel slightly nervous.   

"First we get something to eat." The droid said as Chewie barked out something. Evie sighed. She was hungry, and by the looks of it, so was Luke.   When they were done, they went back outside.

"What can they tell us about Aidia?" Evie looked questioningly at Luke.  

"The Aidia that you speak of lives here on this planet. She had been a captive of the Empire. We rescued her when she was still a young girl." The droid said. Evie raised her eyebrows.

"When can we see her? Will she still remember me?" Evie asked.

"She remembers you, but only in dreams. She is a very strange girl." The protocol translated what Chewie said.  Evie raised her  
eyebrows again. 

Luke listened as Chewie related what he knew, "Strange in what way?" Luke asked.

"Well you should probably see for yourself. Then you can make your own mind up." Chewie responded.

Luke looked at Evie, "Are you ready for this? Finding your sister, I mean?" he said placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, I still want to see her. Luke, we have room on the Lady Luck to take her back with us right?" Evie asked.

"Yes. But only if she wants to come back with us. You know that you're not the same person that she remembers. She may want to stay here." Luke responded. Chewie started to walk down the tree top street. Evie and Luke followed until they came upon a small hut. Evie could sense that there was another human presence nearby, but not in that hut. 

Chewie growled out something...   "It looks like we missed her. She is not here right now..."

"No, she's around... I can sense it." Evie said. Suddenly there was a scream. Evie looked up to see a girl standing in a treetop that was about twenty feet above them... The girl, who had brown curly hair, swung down using a rope that hung from that tree. The girl landed a few feet away from where Evie stood....and then watched Evie curiously....

Luke didn't know what to make of the girl who landed in front of them. He could feel the waves of emotion pouring off Evie, but a sense of confusion from the girl.  Everyone stood for a moment not speaking. It seemed like an eternity. Luke remembered learning that Leia was his sister. Although they had known each other, it was like seeing each other for the first time when Luke learned of their relationship. How the galaxy had changed since then. 

His thought turned momentarily to his students. He had left them behind to fend for themselves, to find Jada. He had knowingly sent them up against an unseen and unknown enemy. Although he hadn't heard anything from them, communication wise, through the Force he could feel them, their emotion, their turmoil. But they had been trained well. He'd felt they needed a challenge, but it weighed on his mind that perhaps this was one challenge that might lose one of them. He had sensed an evil he hadn't felt before but he couldn't measure its strength or presence, for whatever reason. And now he felt a new dark Force, different than the Force, a newer one.

Finally, Evie spoke. Luke still lost in his thoughts didn't hear her. One thing stood out to him though, something had changed in the Force. Nothing to do with the dark side. When he reached out for Mara, Guage and the rest, something different came from them that he hadn't felt before. Then the realization came to him, and it was if veil had been lifted from his eyes. But as always that warning from Ben resonated through his mind, "Bury your feelings....." 

Aidia smiled slowly as her memory told her that the woman standing in front of her was her long lost sister, Evadne. She then looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

"I'm so glad to have finally found you Aidia!" Evie said as she gave her sister a hug. Aidia let herself be hugged and then glanced curiously at Luke. Luke simply smiled and then pulled Evie aside again.

"From what I sense, your sister has not been trained as a Jedi. She could be a very valuable member of the team if we can get her to come with us. The only problem that I see is that she may not want to come. We can't take her away from here if it is against her will. I for one will not allow it." Luke said.  

Aidia overheard the two talking and spoke up. "I do want to get out of here. There are some people who have been after me, and I was about to have to leave this planet anyway... Won't you please take me with you...and train me as a Jedi?" Aidia said. 

Evie smiled.   "Of course we will." Evie said. She pushed a strand of red hair out of her face. Then she turned to Luke. "Won't we?"

Luke smiled. "Well let's get out of here. I also want to know about these people after you, Aidia. If they show up, we can deal with them." Luke was glad Evie had found her sister, he could already tell a change in her, "Aidia, do you need to get anything to take with you?"

"Oh, yes. Just a few things I want." she replied.

"Okay, you guys do that and I'll meet you back at the ship. Sound like a plan?"

"Sounds fine to me." Evie said with a broad smile.

"Great," Luke said, "I'll see you in a few." Then he turned to Chewie, "Come on, and help me prep the ship."  Chewie growled a response, Luke took as affirmative and they headed back to the Lady Luck. After about an hour, Evadne and Aidia walked out of the hut and towards the ship. Evie hoped that Lando would not kill them because they had damaged his ship slightly. Luke seemed to notice that Evie was worried about this.  

"Don't worry about it kiddo... Lando would not mind...as long  
as we are safe..." Luke had the ship fired up and ready to as Evie and Aidia stepped aboard, "Welcome, Ladies." Luke called. "I was about to leave without you, but I thought I could wait."

"Thanks for being so considerate." Evie said with a smile.  

"Well let's get strapped in and we can be off." Luke told them as he sat down in the pilot's chair.


	12. Broken Dreams

"So what great adventure are we after?" Aidia chimed in.  Luke didn't turn around to answer her he continued to look at the instrument panel, "We have some friends who need us."

Evie picked up on Luke's tone and it wasn't a good one, "Luke, I've sensed things too."

"Yes, I've tried to tell myself that all is okay. But I'm not so sure of myself."    With that the ship lifted from the trees and rocketed into the atmosphere. Suddenly Evie felt as though she could hear someone calling out Luke's name... she looked over at Luke to see if he had heard it as well, and by the look on his face, she could tell that he had. He looked back at her.  "Are you picking that up too Evie?" Luke asked as he saw the confused look on her face.

"Yeah... Someone is calling out to you..." Evie said. "Maybe we can hone in on that signal." She said. She then looked over at Aidia, who had decided to take a nap. "I don't think she'd mind terribly if we stop to help whoever it is."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Luke said as he spoke back to the person through the Force... Luke wondered why it always seemed when he was on track for one thing something else cut across his path. Now they were off to find someone who he had no idea who they were or why they were contacting him through the Force.  "I don't mind a side trip, as long as we get to the others as soon as possible. I don't sense as much danger as before, but that doesn't mean anything." Luke said as "Luke Skywalker" resonated through his mind one more time. He got a mental image this time of a planet and a ship, and finally a woman.

"So...where do we find this person?" Evie asked.

Luke ran his hands over some controls," I think I've got an idea." he responded.  Suddenly the Lady Luck popped out of hyperspace. As real time engaged itself, the instrument panel in front of Luke screamed out an alarm.

"What is that horrible noise?" Evie shouted.

"Just the proximity indicator." Luke said as he took a firm grip of the controls and pulled the ship back around towards where they  
had just jumped in.

"Well, turn it off. PLEASE."    Luke grinned and hit a button that quieted the ear splitting sound. 

"See that," he pointed out the foreword viewport. "That's what we were to close too." Evie and Aidia seated themselves in a compartment that was a fair distance from the cockpit of the Lady Luck. They had so much catching up to do, and they didn't want to waste any time on filling each other in on what had happened in the other's absence. Evie listened closely as Aidia recounted what she remembered of the fateful day they were separated.  

"Well, I remember them coming in on us while we were preparing to go to bed. One of Mom's guards told us that they couldn't find Mom. I remember that you asked about Dad." Aidia said.  

"Yeah, I remember that now. And the guard got really silent and wouldn't say anything after that." Evie said.

"Yeah, how odd..." Aidia's voice trailed off. "Anyways, two more guards entered just then and told us to run and hide." Aidia said. "I also remembered that they had taken a fist full of mud mixed with dirt and had patted it on my face. I didn't get the significance of that until you had told me that that is an identifying mark of our family. It makes sense if they were trying to protect us, they would cover it up."

"And after that?" Evie prompted.

"After I saw you and the other guard board the other ship, I was told that your ship had crashed and you had died. Someone I think is trying to cover his or her tracks... I don't think we were ever meant to find each other again..." Aidia said.

"I really didn't think so either." Evie concluded. "You know, with the ship crash and my surviving, it threw off the plans of whoever it was that tried to keep us apart.  I think they later discovered that I had survived, as someone came back and killed the people who raised me.  They also killed my husband, and would have killed me too, if I had been around." Evie sighed. That was another mystery to figure out.

Luke was taken aback at the sharp tone of the woman's voice that came across the comm. Luke spoke up, "We are on a diplomatic mission. On our way to a rendezvous." Luke pushed with the Force, he knew this was the one who called out to him, but he would play along to see what she would do. He hushed the COM, and called to Evie and Aidia then waited for a response from the hailing ship.  Evie heard Luke's call and decided to go up to the cockpit to see what was up. Aidia followed her for lack of anything better to do. They had not exactly done all of their catching up, but that could wait. It seemed that right now there was something more interesting about to happen.

"Hey Luke, what's up?" Evie said.

"Well, I'm waiting for a response from the ship that just hailed us." Luke said. 

The woman's voice came over the COM. "I am glad that you made it. I was beginning to worry. How long till you can either get me out of this ship or attach it to yours?" Luke thought of what they were to do with the lady's ship if it was unfit to fly.  Suddenly it hit him, he almost doubled over in agony. A strong sensation of agony and hurt came over him....Mara and the rest. They had to get to them. He hadn't heard from them in awhile and through the Force he had picked up strong emotions and turmoil but nothing of this magnitude. 

Luke got on the COM, "You there?"    

"Yes, just awaiting your response." The young woman replied. 

"Good, a matter of utmost importance calls us. As for your ship we may need it. I'll give you the coordinates. Follow us into hyperspace."    

"But...." she countered.

"I'm sorry, no time for discussion," Luke replied urgently, "some friends need us immediately. I'll feed you the coordinates. Luke out."     The transmission ended abruptly.

"We felt it as well." Aidia spoke up in a concerned voice.

"I know, I've got a bad feeling about this." Luke said as he punched in the Jade's Shadows last known coordinates.  "Strap yourselves in ladies. This may get wild." With that they shot in space, with their new companion following behind. As they came out of hyperspace, both ships were hit with debris. They used evasive maneuvers to avoid the biggest chunks of what looked like what was left of a huge ship. They had felt a tremor in the Force while in hyperspace that sent chills running down their spines, but what they felt now was worse. Evadne and the others had felt the death of a Jedi who had such great potential.  They would morn the loss later once they understood what had occurred.

"Luke, what is going on? I felt someone's death. Who was it?"  Evadne asked. She sees another two crafts, heading just aft of their port. One is following close behind the other, like a bird of prey after its dinner. She could feel the pain in the ship trailing the other and could feel someone in the forward ship. She then read the thoughts of one of them of the danger that lie ahead.  She knew it was someone whose sole mission was to warn the temple on Yavin 4 of the impending attack from the Trade Federation. She frowned as she watched the remainders of a large vessel, just forward her viewport, burning into nothingness.  Evadne waited for Luke to tell her what to do now. She felt numb and could not decide for herself what to do next. The sensors aboard the Lady Luck went crazy.   

Aidia, not seeing what Evie had seen, screamed, "You dropped us in an asteroid field."

"No, No...I don't think so." Luke said as he took the controls, and threw the ship into a few evasive maneuvers. "It's actually a..." then he stopped. The realization struck him. When they had been in hyperspace, he had felt it. But now the agony washed over him completely. It came from all around.   Luke scanned the space in front of him with his eyes. There. That ship. He touched the minds on it. LaDessa, Jada, and Mara. A tangled mix of loss, grief and love came back to him. He didn't know exactly what had happened. But he felt Guage's loss. All he could think of was, why? He should have been here to help. For a moment he clenched his teeth a bit, then replied to their newfound companion following behind, "I'm sorry to say, the death  
you feel was a friend. A fellow Jedi, a beloved one. I'm sure he died honorably."   

"Oh..."she paused, "I'm so sorry."  Yet, Luke couldn't get past the darkness that seemed to hang. Something gnawed at the back of his mind. He thought he felt a tinge of something dark. But it was more of a latent aura he felt, as if it had just been there then gone. Something though was blocking a portion of his sight into the Force....so he pushed a little harder....the Sith. This changed the whole perspective of everything.   Now that he noticed more clearly it appeared that Mara's ship was in pursuit. 

Luke hailed the Jade's Shadow, "Mara, need any help?"  Before she could answer the ship they were pursuing winked out, shooting off into oblivion.   

Evie looked around into space through the viewport. "What just happened?" She asked. It had happened so fast that she really didn't know what was going on. She could feel that her sister Aidia was getting tense. She wondered if there was anything serious that she should be worrying about.   The ship drew closer to Yavin 4 and landed.  Both girls got out and walked towards the temple.


	13. Anguish Born of Fear

Evie looked around the place as if trying to distinguish where she and Aidia were going to stay. Luke and Mara and everyone else had been so nice to Evie when she had come to them in search of her sister, and now that she had found Aidia, she wondered if she should impose on the rest of the group and ask them if both could stay with them. Evie wondered if there was going to be enough space at the academy for both her and Aidia to move in.   It was true that both Evie and Aidia were confused, both about what was going on around them, and about what they felt that they would find out soon enough about what really happened to their mother and father. 

Aidia turned to Evie.   "I don't want to impose on these nice people, maybe we should go off on our own and try to discover our past," Aidia said. Evie nodded.

"Well, the best thing for us to do right now is to wait and see what happens with the rest of the group. Right now, they seem pretty busy. I know that if we ask them now if they'd like to help us, nobody will be able to," Evie said.   Both Evie and Aidia could feel a sense of calm emanate from Luke... 

No one moved... it seemed forever as Luke told everyone it would be good to clean the place up a bit, "Come on people, it would do us all good. As always you know you are all welcome to stay for as long as you like..." Evie was glad that they would be able to stay as long as they would like. Both she and Aidia had long since finished their portion of the cleaning, and Evie had lead Aidia out to that crashed ship that Luke had showed her not so long ago. Evie just had to know  
what Aidia thought of that ship, and also to ask her if that ship had been the one that she had been taken aboard so long ago.   As they approached the ship, Aidia reached out and put her hands on it, but suddenly she drew them back, as if she could sense the terror and confusion of its long dead crew... 

Aidia frowned. "No, this is not the ship that I was on. It's something much worse..." Aidia could feel so much pain and terror emanating from the ship. It was as if something had crossed the path of time and had left the emotional imprint on this ship...   

"What?" Evie said as she reached up to touch the ship. When she felt made her shiver. It was an overwhelming sadness... So much sadness that made her want to squash something or hurt somebody... Her eyes widened in horror as she withdrew her hand. Why hadn't she felt this before when she and Luke had actually wandered around inside the ship? Maybe both her and Aidia being here had triggered some sort of release in the ship... Something evil... Evadne walked into the crashed ship, followed closely by Aidia. Aidia was a little weary about  
boarding the ship, but she felt a little safer with her sister, who was a trained Jedi, there at her side. She quietly studied the lightsaber at Evadne's side. She wondered how the both of them could lead so separate lives and yet be related.   

"I don't know what it is about this ship, but it's making me feel sick." Aidia declared as soon as they reached the spot where the emblem  
of their family was etched into a wall of the ship.   

"It's alright Aidia... I've been in here before and no harm came to me..." Evie's voice cracked. She could sense Aidia's fear...

"Maybe we should tell that friend of yours. The one you call Luke..." Aidia said uncertainly...

"I don't know what he can do. This ship has something to do with our past, and I want to find out what it is... I want to find out what evil is in our past." Evie said... Evie and Aidia had camped out by the ship. They had a strange feeling that they shouldn't leave it... This feeling scared both of them, and they wondered how long it would take for anyone to notice that they were not with the rest of the group.   "Aidia?" Evie called from her spot on the ground where she had slept. "How much do you remember from the day that Mom died?" Evie asked.   Aidia rolled over to face her sister. 

"Well, I was with you when we heard the scream. I didn't tell you earlier, I had heard mom and some strange man fighting. They were talking about us. The man was saying that he was going to kill mom if she didn't let him have us." Aidia explained.   

"What did he look like?" Evie asked.   "We both have seen him before. I thought that he was one of the servants of the house. But now, I don't know." Aidia said.  "I think that he was more than that... But what his relation to us is, I'm not certain.... This ship may  
contain something to tell us about our dark past." 

A STARKILLER SHIP LOOMS OVER THE PLANET

The ship loomed over Yavin 4 in a most precarious way. Mara  
worried about the planet and the students still here on it. Looking at Luke's worried face, she said, "I am going to gather up Evie, Aidia, and the others. We may need to evacuate the planet." Luke nodded his approval.  
    Heading back to the temple, she suddenly stopped. Turning to look at Luke, "What will you be doing Luke?" She worried that he might try something foolish.  She saw Jada come running out and motioned for her to join her. "Jada, go find Evie and Aidia. Get them to my ship fast. There won't be much time before that," pointing up to the ship that looked like it would come raining down in huge pieces on them soon, "comes down here." She watched as Jada ran to go get the young ladies. 

Jada ran as fast as she could down the hall looking for Evie.     "Evie! Evie!" She called.  She stopped running and looked around. She then closed her eyes, stretching out with the Force. She searched for Evie's location, and ran toward it...

Evie could sense someone coming to find her before she heard Jada's voice screaming for her. Evie looked over at Aidia in surprise. They had been camping out by the ship, trying to make minor repairs to it to see if they could get its data bank up and running so that it could tell them the reason for the crash.  Both women were totally oblivious to what was going on around them or back at the temple.  

"Hey Jada... Settle down and tell us what's up." Evie  
asked.

"The planet is being attacked. We have to get to Master Luke and Mara quick..."She said, out of breath... 

"Attacked? Are you sure?" Aidia asked as she looked from Evie to Jada. "Did I miss something?"

"I think we both did." Evie said as she studied Jada for a second...   Aidia suddenly ran inside the ship. Evie not knowing why, followed her. 

"Evie, we don't have time for that! We have to go now, or we may be killed!" She yelled... Evie and Aidia dove for the smuggling compartments inside the ship as they felt the reverberating boom of the crashing ship hitting the planet's surface. They covered their heads and ears so that they would be protected from the flying debris. Evie silently wondered if Jada had taken shelter.

"Evie... What's happening?" Aidia asked. Evie did not hear her over the banging and creaking noises of the Bespinian ship as it folded itself around them... 

***************************

"Can you feel them in the Force?" Mara asked.

Luke nodded affirmatively, "But I only sense one." 

Mara spoke up, "Who?"

"Jada," he paused, "but she's fading." Luke continued trailing off. " Turning his gaze towards the temple but a bit north of it he pointed, "This way."  Trudging through the rain the three set off to find Jada. It perplexed Luke because he couldn't get a read on Evie and Aidia. Something was blocking him. He would have felt if they had perished for sure.    

Evie awoke and looked around. Everything was pitch black inside the ship and the metal pushed up against Evie's legs. She carefully sat up and lifted a pile of sheet metal off of her right leg. She turned around to see if Aidia was ok, and found that Aidia was still passed out.  "Come on, Aidia... wake up." Evie crawled over to her sister and gently shook her.  There was no response. Evie gulped in a deep breath. The atmosphere surrounding them was very thin and it was hard to breath. She looked up and saw a light that seeped through a crack in the wall, so Evie quickly took out her lightsaber and cut a hole through it. The light let in revealed to Evie that Aidia was seriously wounded. Evie had to go find help... and fast... Aidia's time was running out...

Mara ran out of the Temple and as she was heading in the direction of where Evie and Aidia were. She came to the wreck of a ship that used to be the one Evie talked about. The opening was cut jaggedly as if someone was trying to get out. She pulled her saber out and cut a wide gap in it. Putting her saber back on her belt, she knelt down and moved the rest of the metal aside. "Evie, answer me will you? EVIE?" As she waited on an answer she saw a delicate hand protruding out of the wreckage. She prayed it wasn't Evie. But knew the person wasn't doing well for the pulse was faint.  The metal wouldn't budge so she had to gently cut it out of the way also. She reached down to grab the person out when someone grabbed her arm. 

Evie took her bloody hand off of Mara's arm and stepped back. "I'm so glad that you are here. We have to get Aidia out of there. I have a feeling that not only is she in physical trouble, she may be in trouble through the Force." Evie said. She looked at Mara with pain in her eyes. She had already asked too much of Luke and Mara and the rest. She didn't know if she should tell them what she discovered inside of that ship.   

FLASHBACK TO EARLIER 

"Look at this, Aidia." Evie said as she dusted off another symbol on the ship. It was nearly rusted off, but they could still make out what it was.   "Daddy?" Aidia asked. She knew that she had seen that symbol before, her mother had told her that it was evil. Someone else had told her that it was the symbol of their father. "That's the  
symbol that mom warned us about." Aidia said.  

"Yeah, I know..." Evadne sighed. "What was Dad doing here?"   

"I don't know. I never understood why Dad kept disappearing. I always loved him, though mom told us that he didn't love us." 

END FLASHBACK

Evie followed as Aidia was taken to the med bay. She could tell that the girl's life Force was fading quickly, and she wanted to be there to say goodbye if anything happened.   "Come on, Aidia..." Evie whispered in Aidia's ear. "Don't leave me to face him by myself." As Mara helped Evadne carry Aidia, who was severely wounded, into the Temple.  Evadne looked at her sister and watched as the wounded girl looked around. They had set her down on a makeshift bed, and were fetching medical supplies to tend to her wounds. "You're stronger than this..." Evie said softly to Aidia. She didn't want to cause the girl any stress that might only add to the effects of the wounds. "Aidia. Don't leave me alone to face him." Evie repeated. She took in a huge gulp of air, as if she had somehow forgotten to tell her body to breathe for the last few minutes. She slowly let it out, trying to calm herself...to tell herself that everything was going to be all right...   

"Evadne... You must find him... He grows stronger every day... And he KNOWS... he knows about us." Aidia's voice was weak and it quivered as it escaped her bleeding mouth... She choked on blood...  

"No! Aidia!" Evie rolled Aidia over onto her side so she wouldn't choke on her blood. "I can't do it without you..."   

"It's the only way... If I don't make it... You must stop him..." Aidia's sentences were short and to the point...as if she didn't want to waist the precious breath that she had... Evie looked her in the  
eyes... tears were flowing down her own...   

"I won't let you die!" Evie said as she gathered her sister into her arms and sat and rocked with her in her lap... 

FLASHBACK

...and again they were young...

"I won't let you leave." Evadne sat in the same fashion, cradling her five-year-old sister in her lap. "It's so unfair." Evie cried. She knew somehow that they would be separated within the hour...  

"Leave?" Aidia asked. She knew in her heart that they would not see each other for a long time after this day, but she didn't want to admit it. If she admitted it, then that meant that she had accepted it, and that was just untrue... She thought about the cake that they had just tried to make, and she smiled longingly... Longingly to be in a normal family... "Why don't we go into the refresher and do each other's hair." Aidia suggested...   

"Ok." Evie's choked voice said. They both walked into the refresher... Each seeing the reflection of the other... Each knowing that there was despair in the other's eyes

    THEN THE SHOT WAS FIRED....

"NO!" Evie screamed out.... "You can't leave me. I won't let you..." Evie screamed for help...anyone's help as she felt Aidia's pulse weaken... Aidia could sense that there was chaos and confusion going on around her before she even opened her eyes. The first sense that returned to her was her Force sense, the second sense was her hearing. She could hear Evie talking to her...or was Evie talking to  
herself.. of that she was unsure...   The next to return was her sight... Everything was blindingly bright white for a little while, but suddenly she could see a tint of red as she felt something tickle her face... She felt something cool and wet fall onto her face...   

"Aidia? Can you hear me?" Evie returned to focus. The red that Aidia had seen had been Evadne's hair. Aidia nodded her head and raised her hand to feel her head. She was frightened at the sight of blood that was running down her arm.

END FLASHBACK


	14. The Hunted

"What happened to me?" Aidia asked. 

"You had a little accident, that's all." Evie said, trying not to upset Aidia with her worried expression. "Aidia, how much can you remember from that incident?" Evie asked. She really needed to know if Aidia had shared the same vision that she had...about the day that they were separated.   

"It was dad..." Aidia choked out, her voice taking a few minutes to return. "Dad...killed...mom..." She looked up at Evie with questioning eyes. Evie frowned...that was exactly what she had remembered too, and it scared her.   

"I think that he's still alive, and he'll stop at nothing to find us." A chill went down her spine. "We'll endanger everyone here if we stay." Evie directed the statement towards Luke who was standing near where the bed was. 

"I have always feared the unknown, but I have always known..." Aidia said. "I have never told you this, but I can remember a day when you were elsewhere, and I was left in Dad's charge. Mom was sick from what we later learned was some sort of reaction from poison." Aidia said, there were tears in her eyes. "I saw Dad disposing of that poison." Aidia couldn't speak of the horrors that that brought to mind. "He caught me spying on him, and told me that I was next..." Aidia shivered.   

"Why did you never tell me?" Evie asked.   

"I didn't want to believe it to be true..." Aidia said... Evie helped Aidia to stand up. She was relieved at the fact that Aidia was alive, but what Aidia confirmed about their father really scared her. She had tried to push it out of her mind as far as she could, but now it resurfaced... and she was horrified...   She had spent so long searching for her sister... And now that she had found her, she had put Aidia in more danger than she had been living on Kashyyyk where no one could have found her.   

"Now that we are together, we are in more danger than we were if we were separate..." Evie said, chillingly... Evie looked at Aidia, and put her hands over her sister to send healing power to where she was hurt. She sighed... She wondered if she would be putting them in danger if her and her sister stayed... Evie turned back to Aidia and sighed. "Should we risk the chance of putting the only friends we have in danger if we stay?" Evie said, swallowing hard. The sith that was hunting them down had already killed her Jedi master, and she had stumbled upon the burning village when she had returned.  

Aidia shook her head. "I sense that these people mean  
a lot to you." Aidia said. She caught a flash of what Evie was seeing and sighed. "Do you want to take a chance of having that happen again?" She said, referring to the image of the burning body that Evie was  
seeing.   

"I don't want that to happen to anyone ever. But he will hunt us down, no matter where we are. Can we spend our lives running in fear whenever even a whisper of the Sith comes near?" Evie sighed.   

"I only hope that maybe we can outlive him." Aidia said. "Perhaps by his death, no more bounty hunters or Sith will be after us." 

"You're right, Aidia." Evadne said. "We can't spend our lives running from the unknown. We need to find Luke and tell him of the possible dangers of having us stay here and then ask him what he thinks. We also need to start your training. I know the Force is strong in you, as it is in me. But you have had no formal training. Perhaps Mara would consider helping you."  Evadne sighed.  "But for now, we need to try to get some rest."

***********************************

Evie and Aidia woke up at the same time. Evie could suddenly sense the presence of some other being that was powerful in the Force... It was a Sith... and he seemed to be within hours of reading where they were. Evie looked at Aidia in horror. She knew that the Sith was coming for them, and they had to be prepared... Aidia frowned. Suddenly Aidia felt a sharp pain as if there was someone that was trying his or her hardest to keep her paralyzed. She tried to move, but found that it was impossible. She looked at Evadne desperately to see if she felt the same power. The look on Evadne's face answered that unasked question.

   "What's happening?" Aidia said. She could tell that Evie was in more pain than she was. Suddenly it stopped. "What was  
that?"   

"Someone's here...and he or she knows about us and our father..." Evie's voice was chilling. Aidia didn't quite understand...not being trained in the Force made her not as traceable as Evie...    

"We're in trouble..." Aidia said... Evie knew that they were in trouble as well. She had sensed a presence rich in the dark side of the  
Force...the feel of the one that was sent to seek and destroy... She looked at Aidia desperately. 

"What do we do? We've already caused Luke and the rest so much  
trouble...and now this." Evie's voice trailed off.   

"We need to warn the others and then go back to that ship. Maybe there is something aboard that ship that will help us conceal where we are. Unless it is truly too late." Aidia answered. Aidia looked at her wounds and let Evie touch them...sending healing powers pulsing through her... "We've got to get back to that ship. I think that there might be something there that we need to look for. You said that you found that necklace there... Well there should be a matching one in there for me. Maybe it will help us decide what to do." Aidia said as she sighed. She got up off of the bed and walked out of the room with Evadne. Evie followed Aidia out of the room. She sighed... She really didn't want  
the Sith to find them, but she really didn't want to do much of anything. She was tired... 

Evie walked outside of the temple with her sister. They were back at the crashed ship, searching for anything that they could use to send the sith away...or deflect his powers away from them. She sighed as she looked at Aidia, who was busy with her hand stuck in a crack that she found that looked interesting.   

"What have you got there?" Evie asked. Aidia smiled as she pulled out a light saber.   

"Did you know about this?" Aidia asked. She studied the saber. It was nicely built and had her name carved into it. The carving looked as if it had been hastily done...as if someone had known that she had Jedi potential, but hadn't had time to give the saber to her...or get her name carved in delicately... She reached in and pulled out another saber of the same make, but it had Evie's name on it. She frowned.

"What is this about?" Evie said as she looked at the saber. Aidia smiled.  

"Looks like someone was trying to prepare us." Aidia said. Evie studied the saber. It was of a better make than the one that she was carrying around that her Jedi master had given her. Suddenly she had a flash back of a memory.  

FLASHBACK

"Give me that stone, Mommy. I want to put it in mine." Evie said as she studied her 'toy' closely.   

"Remember girls that these are not toys. I don't want you to play with them. They are the weapons of your people. They are called light sabers." Their mother said as she handed Evie the emerald that she had requested.   Evie looked over at Aidia, who was building her saber with an Gyth stone. Aidia slipped the Gyth stone into position and then pressed the button to see if it would work. Nothing happened. Aidia frowned and threw her saber to the ground...and then stormed out of the room.  Evie pushed the button on her saber, and nothing happened as well... She handed the weapon to her mother and ran after her  
sister.  

END FLASHBACK

"Looks like someone found our sabers and fixed them to work." Evie said.   

"Oh my gosh. I remember... I wanted for it to work so bad, but I guess that neither of us was ready to build a saber." Aidia said... Evie took the saber and turned it on. It glowed a bright green, illuminating her face. 

"What if it's a trap?" She said as she turned it back off and inspected it. She watched Aidia's mouth gape open.   

"It's not, Evie. I sense that it was put there before Mother was murdered." Aidia said, showing her potential in the Force. She sighed. "Well, we'd better get a move on locating out sith before he finds us." 

***********************

They could sense him coming just as he could sense their fear as he drew closer. How many years and credits spent searching for them he couldn't even begin to fathom, but time had finally run out for them. For one of the few times in his life that he could remember, he actually smiled. 

Evie smiled at Aidia... "Maybe Mom put it there, knowing about the plot against her life?" Evie suggested, but this caused Aidia to frown. 

"I don't think Mom was Force sensitive at all. I think that all of our power in the Force comes through our Father. Mom couldn't have known about her death before it happened. She couldn't have known that the Sith would come after us and try to hunt us down." Aidia said.

"You're right, Aidia. Let's not waste any more time pondering about this. We need to prepare ourselves for the confrontation." Evie said.

*******************

He crouched behind a large, fallen log at the tree line and carefully went through his backpack. Finding the macrobinoculars, he zoomed in on the front entrance to the Temple, noticing the massive stone that made up the immense building. Not seeing any movement, he slowly scanned the surrounding area and still no movement was discovered. Moving back to the entranceway with the binoculars, he caught sight of a young man running outside. Obviously he was in a big hurry, which only could mean something important was happening. His curiosity peaked, he continued watching through the macrobinoculars, waiting to see which direction the man was heading. He had plenty of time to finish his job and for now he'd follow behind just to satisfy his curiosity.  Reaching deep into the dark side of the Force he found the calm and serenity he needed to keep hidden from the girls.

***************************

Mara made her way to where the girls were and came up behind them, "Evie, Aidia, you here? Luke sent me to help you. He senses great danger and I fear he is right. We must head back to the Temple at once. Someone strong in the dark side is here and I fear they have come for you."  She stepped away from the wreckage, coming around to the front and saw the two girls standing there with lightsabers in their hands.

"Good, you have weapons. I hope you know how to use them if the time arises for it. But for now, we must hurry, there isn't much time to lose. We must head back to the Temple to Luke."  She waited on the girls to reply knowing time was running out before the darksider would be upon them. 

Evie looked at Mara and then over at Aidia. "I know how to use a saber, but Aidia here is untrained. She can only fight in hand-to-hand combat. If there is a way to quickly show her how to use it, she'd be grateful." Evie said to Mara. She frowned, knowing that it had taken her years to master the art of using the saber.   

"Let's get out of here." Aidia interjected... 

********************

Running silently through the jungle, he quickly ducked behind a large tree. He stood quietly debating on whether to follow the Jedi Luke Skywalker or continue with his original mission. He was having conflicting feelings within the Force he didn't quite understand. He could feel the ones he'd been tracking in one direction. Both were close and both were prime targets near his position. Now, which one to eliminate first.

***********************

"Ok, let's get back to the Temple first and then find Luke to see what can be done next." Mara followed them to the Temple, wanting to keep whatever was out there away from them and use herself as a shield to block any attack from it.  They made it to the Temple and started looking for Luke. 

*************************

Narrowing his eyes, he judged the distance between himself and Luke Skywalker. Kneeling down, he casually removed several items from his backpack. Locking the pieces into place, he stood back up and leaned against a tree. He had assembled a modified, long-range blaster rifle with an electronic, infrared scope to his personal specifications. Bringing the weapon up, he coldly adjusted the electronic scope and within seconds its crosshairs zoomed in on Luke Skywalker.  Taking a few precious seconds to sigh lightly, Seth wondered briefly when hunting down and killing a Jedi had become so pathetically easy and unexciting. Maybe he would just wound this one and try out some new torturing techniques, just for fun. Focusing back into the scope, he readjusted to hit the Jedi's back instead of  
his head, then pulled the trigger.  Luke sensed the bullet coming a split second before it struck the tree next to him.

*****************************

Evie pulled some things out of the cupboard to eat. She frowned at the selection, she wondered if Aidia would eat any of it... Evie herself was quite use to eating whatever she could, and she had tried lots of different entrees from other places...but Aidia had not... She took out some food and set it in front of Aidia. 

"Eat up Aidia, I don't know when we'll get another chance to eat." She said as she sat down with some food of her own. 

************************************

He swore under his breath in four different languages as he saw both shots miss its intended victim. His anger built into pure hatred and revenge, helping fuel the dark side energy he'd need to kill this one. Suddenly he felt more than saw the ball of deadly energy coming straight for him. Throwing himself to the side, it hit a nearby tree and exploded, raining sparks down on top of him.  Forget the torture, he thought as he pulled himself off the ground. Luke Skywalker had  
just sealed his fate by making this hunt more exciting and challenging. 

Slinging his gun and backpack onto his back, he watched  
his prey run deeper into the woods. He stood quietly thinking until he finally turned back towards the Temple. Running silently straight across the front of the building, he headed for the back and waited for the Jedi to appear. It was just a hunch, but he had a feeling this  
was the only place the Jedi could run to for protection. He crouched  
down and waited in the tree line behind the Temple, bringing his Force sense down so his prey wouldn't be warned ahead of time. Bringing out the macrobinoculars, he made himself comfortable and, like a deadly  
spider, watched for Luke Skywalker to wander into his web. 

***********************************

"I fear that there is someone else here on the planet. I felt a strange presence in the Force... But at the moment it seems to be gone..." Evie's voice trailed off. She watched as Aidia tensed up. "Maybe I should show you really quickly the basics of fighting with the saber." Evie said as she finished up her meal. She waited patiently as Aidia finished hers and cleared both of their spots.   

"That would be nice, because I have a feeling that this person who is after us will try to separate us." Aidia said as she grabbed a towel and wiped her hands off. She then watched as Evie showed her a few moves with the saber.

****************************

Everything seemed to move at once in a split second. He felt Skywalker's presence suddenly emerge within the Force and he looked through his macrobinoculars. Looking right back at him was the Jedi himself, then his prey broke into a run towards the temple. Despite his size, in one quick, fluid motion he was up on his feet and running towards the Temple with the agility and speed to match the Jedi's.     Locating the small door, he double-checked for his saber hanging on his belt. Cautiously he peered inside and entered into a small alcove. He shut the door quietly behind him and set his backpack into a darkened corner. Taking the scope off, he removed the blaster rifle from  
his shoulder and held it as he peeked around the corner into the main hallway.  Finally he slipped around the corner and ran down the hall, keeping himself as close as possible to the cool, stone wall.  Without  
emotion, he looked around the temple, until he heard the voices of two girls down at the other end of the hall.

His head jerked up to look towards the noise as he smirked. The hunt was officially over with and the week wasn't even up.


	15. Final Showdown

"He's coming, I can feel it... He's really close. Aidia here's the most important lesson I can teach you. You must put up a Force field of energy that will mask your presence to the Sith and any other Force users. Just concentrate...think of a Force field... envision it...and it will be real..." Evie said. "Now, watch this." Evie said as she closed her eyes. Her red hair turned a pretty black color and curled up. This change would fool anyone... Her eyes turned blue. When she was a child growing up with her Jedi master, she had discovered she could change her appearance. She knew that this was a helpful power, so she worked hard to develop it. She wondered if it was hereditary...and if Aidia could do it too.   She opened her eyes and looked at Aidia, who stared at her...mouth gaping...

"How did you do that?" Aidia said. Evie didn't answer; she just reached forward and touched Aidia. Aidia's brown hair turned blonde and her eyes turned violet.   

"Now, don't let that Force field down or even though we look different, the Sith and others will be able to sense us..." Evie warned. The girls hid their sabers in their cloaks and ducked into the shadows... 

The Sith had taken Skywalker unawares.  He moved over to the Jedi Master now laying on the floor motionless. Kicking him in the ribs, he was finally satisfied that this one would be unconscious for a while at least. He picked up Skywalker's saber and clipped it to his belt with a certain amount of pride. It hung like a war trophy as he thought of the tales he'd tell of bringing down the great Skywalker himself.    

"I'm tired of chasing after the other Jedi," He said to the unconscious Skywalker, "anyway. I'm only here for two girls, sisters. Once I've separated them and executed each one individually then my job is done here," he explained casually as he made a sweeping motion with his arm over Luke's body. As he grew closer to the end of the hallway, he could see and hear more than just the girls. A wave of hatred swelled inside him.  

Igniting his blade, he called out to the girls. "Evadne. Aidia." He saw them turn quickly, as if startled by the sound of their own names. "You can run and try hiding the rest of your lives, but I will always hunt you down. You can disguise your looks, but not your hearts. Better to end it now, here, in this place where there is nowhere to hide." He held out his hand towards them. "Come with me and your friends will not suffer the consequences of your actions. Already two of them have suffered. How many more in your lifetimes will you Force me to kill?"

Silently he stood with his hand still outstretched, saber glowing brightly down at his side. He waited for their answer. He put down his arm when both girls continued to stare at him in shock. Deactivating his saber, he clipped it to his belt, looking back up to them. "Don't  
be foolish like you're mother was so long ago. Come back with me, both of you, and I can begin your training as your Instructor." Slowly his blaster rifle slid down his arm that was partially blocked behind  
him.    

Evie stepped forward, not as afraid since he had deactivated his saber. "Tell us why you killed her, first," she said in a surprisingly strong voice.  
    Seth sighed heavily, taking a few steps closer to her. The rifle had now slipped perfectly into his hand, his finger wrapping around the trigger. "Alright. If that's all you're needing, but I'm afraid in the end the truth will be as painful for you as it was for her," he  
said with a sad and lonely tone to his voice.    She looked at the man who had killed her mother, was a Sith Master tracking them throughout the galaxy. But, also her father. 

She stepped forward once more, narrowing the gap even further between them. "I want to know the truth, no matter how painful," she finally said.    

"Then here's your truth." He brought the weapon up and  
around from behind him, "I know that you are with child, and at my command, you will go into labor.  The child will be born right here as soon as I give the command.  Then you will have a choice.  Dear Evadne, I know that you are the strongest in the Force of the Royal Family, so if you come with me and turn to the dark side, then I will not harm the child.  But if you do not, then I will kill you, your sister, and the child."  The Sith raised his hand and Evadne screamed out in pain... "It's your choice."  Evadne's water broke, and the baby was ready to deliver.  Aidia, seeing her sister's distress, helped lower her to the ground and waited to deliver the baby.

************************************

      Aidia watched helplessly as the infant she had just delivered was ripped from her arms and called to the Sith.  The Sith smiled evilly at the infant girl.  "Yes, a little girl."  The Sith said as he held the child in his arms.  "And what will you call her Evadne?"

      "Her name is Kemryi (KEM REE EYE).  It means from the palace meadow.  It will serve as a reminder of the place that we called home before you destroyed it and murdered our Mother."  Evadne sneered.  She looked at her baby, and then at the Sith.  "Do not harm the child.  I will go with you."  Evadne said.

      "Finally, my dark side princess.  This is your destiny!"  The Sith said.  He set the baby on the ground, and grabbed Evadne by the arm... and both disappeared...

      With tears in her eyes, Aidia gathered her niece in her arms.  "You will know, my child, of the great sacrifice that your Mother made for us."  Aidia promised the child.


End file.
